Designing For Gen Z: Efficiency Is Out, Meaning Is In

Flexibility, intentionality and entertainment are more of a consideration than ever before for architects designing offices as Generation Z has started to inundate the workforce. 

“This generation is demanding and they’re raising the bar,” Lauri Goodman Lampson, president and CEO of PDR Corp., said at Bisnow’s Houston Architectural Insights & Design Innovation Summit Wednesday. “Everything has to be a meaningful experience … So we have to understand what is meaningful to them.” 

Older generations have to understand that Gen Z might think about the world differently than they do, said Mide Akinsade, a design director and principal at Perkins & Will who exemplified his point with a story about his 27-year-old niece who has never had a driver's license. Akinsade’s niece told him that she simply doesn’t want a car, he said, adding that she lives in New York City and enjoys being in a walkable neighborhood.

The city itself can be an amenity, and Gen Z is less concerned about having a large house and yard as the generations that came before them, panelists said at the event, held at the Omni Houston Hotel Galleria. Ziad Kaakouch, president of Z & Co., said he realized this when he toured an apartment complex with units that were about 700 SF, the size of his closet.

Touring the complex, he saw a dog park and a group that regularly got together for a dog happy hour. There were individual offices and conference rooms for people to work individually or in groups. There were pickleball courts and a gym divided into yoga and weight sections.

“Now I know why your room is only 775 SF,” Kaakouch said. “All you need is to shower and sleep because you don’t want to be in your room. You just want to be outside. It’s amazing.” 

That experience taught him that he should tailor his designs toward entertainment to cater to Gen Z, he said. 

The architecture experts said the same is true for office spaces. Steve Williams, vice president and head of design for design-build firm CIVE, said within his own office there is a recreation space for employees. Beyond the typical break room, it has games and televisions, but it can also adapt to host whatever they need it for.

There has to be a degree of flexibility and intentionality in each space, including what activity will be done where and how that will change, LO Architecture principal Vanessa Ortega said.

“You’re not going to have the same activity every month … The attention span just wants something new,” she said. 

Design influences how people flow in a space. It can be the difference of whether people feel comfortable stopping to have a conversation in a hallway, Lampson said.

“Corridors aren’t about being super efficient anymore,” she said. “They’re about accommodating this human interaction, because that two-minute stop that we had, we’re going to have the best idea we had all day.”

People want human interaction, and architects can facilitate that by designing spaces to have the correct amount of density, Lampson said. While there is an uptick of retail locations offering activities like golf or pickleball, the activity is not what it’s really about, she said.

“The vibe in the room when we got together and did that thing, that’s what I want again,” Lampson said.

Human interaction is important in the office setting today as well, Williams said. CIVE celebrates every employee’s birthday in person.

“So we’re doing about three or four cakes a month, but everybody gets a cake,” Williams said. 

While there may be a learning curve for older generations to understand what Gen Z is prioritizing, most are open to it. Decision-makers want to make their workspaces nice, said Eric Hudson, Method Architecture’s partner and principal of design services.

“They want star talents and they want their companies to succeed,” he said. “So they’re really embracing the concepts that the younger generations like, and they’re trying to figure out how to make that work with what the company needs.” 

While they might be open to it, they don’t always understand what it is that younger generations are looking for, Lampson said.

“That’s where we come in and try to help them understand,” she said. 

There should be an honest dialogue to determine what will entice younger employees to want to come into the office and what makes them want to come back, Lampson said.

“We need magnets, not mandates,” she said. “We want people to be compelled to come because they want to, and then we want them to love it when they get there because we want them to come back.”