Buildings 2.0 Library
Conversations on the future of the built environment
81 episodes of the Buildings 2.0 podcast, each bound as a short book: the ideas, the numbers and the lines worth keeping.
Season 1, Episode 19 /Jul 18, 2024
Why TPG's creative director plans offices so the next change takes a partition, not a renovation
Greg Guerra, TPG Architecture
Jul 18, 2024 /Design & Practice
Why TPG's creative director plans offices so the next change takes a partition, not a renovation
Greg Guerra is the creative director at TPG Architecture, a New York design firm focused on interior workplaces. He trained as an architect at the University of Toronto and worked on base buildings before moving to interiors, where ideas get built in months instead of years. He talks about designing offices that people want to return to and that still work 15 or 20 years from now.
Greg Guerra, Creative Director, TPG Architecture
In this conversation
The office tower competition where Greg watched Peter Pran and Carlos Zapata turn wild sketches into ideas that made sense, and what it taught him about communication.
How TPG's visioning sessions read a client's unstated aspirations, down to body language.
Why TPG asks its own team to be in the office four days a week: the best design work happens at a whiteboard in a hallway.
A law firm plan built on a 150-square-foot module, where a meeting room becomes two offices with one partition.
Why Greg thinks glass fronts and lower workstations changed more than the light in an office.
A good idea is one that allows the client's aspirations to be fully manifested.
Greg Guerra
Chapters
Learning to communicate an idea
From architecture school in Toronto to base buildings and then the faster pace of interiors.
What makes a good idea
Serving the client's aspirations, and hearing the ones nobody says out loud.
Four days in the office
Why a design firm puts a premium on face-to-face work.
Future-proofing the workplace
Planning modules and furniture that let a space change without construction.
The new baseline
Daylight, views, glass fronts and amenities after the cellular office.
What will not change
Why sketching side by side still beats any virtual tool for speed.
With regards to sustainability, the best and most sustainable solution is staying in place.
Greg Guerra
Takeaways
Pick a planning module and size rooms as multiples of it. A 20 by 15 foot meeting room on a 10 by 15 foot office grid turns into two offices with one partition, with no changes to HVAC, lighting or glass.
The greenest fit-out is the one you do not rebuild. Designing for flexibility in planning, technology and furniture keeps a space useful past the next lease event.
There is no single answer to hybrid work or amenities yet. Treat each client on its own terms and let the pattern emerge across many projects.
Speak up, bring your idea forward. Don't be afraid, because it's actually really good, and the grown-ups haven't thought of it.
Greg Guerra