Perkins&Will supports small, focused explorations proposed by staff members with micro-grants of money and time through the Innovation Incubator program. The Innovation Incubator promotes the exploration and development of ideas that improve our work, open new areas of business and stretch our collective creativity. The results of these explorations further our design work, improve our design process and contribute to the knowledge base of our industry.
The program was launched in 2010 and was an immediate success. With more than 700 entries over 20 cycles, sustained interest in the Innovation Incubator at all levels of the firm is testament to its relevance in our ever-growing culture of innovation.
Browse some of the Innovation Incubator projects that have helped grow the profession’s intelligence over the years. Explore more at: innovation.perkinswill.com.
Much work needs to be done to address inequities in our society and our built environment. This study is an initial attempt to consolidate indicators regarding social equity in order to re-focus and re-frame our design process by providing measurable targets for social equity. As part of the report a relatively exhaustive literature review of... Read more »
Perkins and Will is at the forefront of innovation and technology in Architecture, and to keep this trajectory we must look forward into market innovations and emerging technologies. This project analyzes a patent-pending shading technology for its ability to increase performance of buildings in multiple locations in comparison to standard shading strategies. This patent-pending technology... Read more »
For decades Perkins and Will has been analyzing workplace performance, understanding how organizations utilize their space, how they work, collaborate and socialize. The amount of data gathered through observational studies (Space Utilization Studies – SUS) stands at over 4 million observations, 54,000 workstations, spanning 15 countries and 21 business sectors. This study is the results... Read more »
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) incites innovation by re-framing our understanding of building materials within the context of their ecological sources and impacts. Of these impacts, embodied carbon is a primary contributor to global warming. Most building materials’ embodied carbon emissions occur before a product leaves its manufacturer’s gate. These emissions can be measured and reduced... Read more »
Perhaps the most prevalent workplace theme today is employee health and well-being, addressed by such design considerations as clean air, access to light and views, amenities, social spaces, and choice. Intersecting this trend is the continual rise of a dispersed, mobile workforce. This project proposes a new workplace model: The city, our client, becomes a... Read more »
Personal objects in the workplace have a proven positive impact on morale, productivity, and creativity. But in the ‘free address’ workplace, real estate is at a premium, and design teams are challenged to find a personal storage solution that feels personal. We believe new tools should complement this new work style, so we developed an... Read more »
Building simulation tools can empower architects to evaluate and optimize the performance of their designs. Thus, it is essential to integrate building performance simulation modeling from an early design stage. A critical piece of the simulated environment is the weather file. It is a compilation of 20- 30 years of historical weather and hourly data... Read more »
In order to stay innovative, it is crucial that we keep asking ourselves the disruptive questions, which form the basis of great architecture. The more we share knowledge, talk about and discuss architecture on a daily basis, the more likely we are to remain critical, come up with innovative solutions, create social engagement and bring... Read more »
Arenas are large, expensive, non-continuously-used, energy-intensive luxuries. To date, there have been no arenas built that meet any definition of “zero net energy building.” How do we move beyond the AIA 2030 Challenge, and design ecologically sustainable Net Zero energy Arenas? While Perkins and Will has generally made great progress towards meeting the 2030 goals,... Read more »
This article investigates bedroom as a typology that occurs across different building types: student residential life, private dwellings, hospitality and healthcare. The article also explores synergies between design strategies. We questioned whether these synergies could translate into innovative bedroom design ideas in unexpected ways. Research methods included literature review, qualitative and quantitative assessments, and design explorations.... Read more »
Urban designers, architects, and planners are well versed in understanding how to shape, form, and adapt cities, but is there more to understand in how those cities are shaping their residents? Could lifespans be the best new urban design metric? This report summarizes a high-level urban analysis on the world’s longest-lived communities, commonly known as... Read more »
