Chocolate Heaven to Tech Nirvana: corporate landscapes from Bournville to Google, 11th June 2020

How are gardens and parks used in workplaces to inspire and support the people who work there? How beneficial are they to corporate identity and profit? Helena Chance will talk about some of the gardens provided by tech companies such as Google and Apple, and will discuss how we can better understand them by looking at the past.

She will examine the landscapes of some of the British and American corporate giants of the 19th and 20th centuries such as Cadbury and the National Cash Register Company (NCR), the motives behind their making and the role of design and designers in their success. Helena’s talk will be based on her recently published book The Factory in a Garden. A History of Corporate Landscapes from the Industrial to the Digital Age (Manchester University Press).

Haigo, Paris, 18th May 2017

Paris-based business consultancy, Haigo, invited me to talk about ‘Green Space and the Future of Work’.

Haigo is a consultancy which uses ‘design thinking’ – a methodology used by designers to solve complex problems, and find desirable solutions for clients – to advise businesses on how to bring organisational change and engage customers more effectively with their products.  This could involve identity and branding, and improving their on-line presence and physical workspaces.

My talk included topics such as how leisure spaces are used in workplaces to inspire and support staff and why big brands are investing in green spaces and gardening tools for their employees.

The audience was Haigo’s own employees and other professionals engaged in wellbeing and design for the workplace. It was lovely to visit their offices in Paris and share ideas with all those involved.

Haigo said ‘Dr Chance’s talk on green spaces and the future of work gave us invaluable depth to our work with large multinational companies, helping them to design the workspaces and values of the future. Without the talk, 90% of our audience wouldn’t have known about the historical precedents to the green movement in the workspace. Dr Chance’s ideas will be shared with our clients to plan for their future. Because of the wide appeal of the talk, we were able to make connections with the many interesting guests that the talk attracted. We will now be putting in place regular talks from the academic world, which we believe have direct impact in the business sphere.’