Creating flow in a multi-level workspace depends on four coordinated moves: place useful shared destinations on more than one floor, make client areas part of everyday work, turn stairs and corridors into inviting social routes, and provide collaboration technology wherever people gather. The approach comes from Perkins and Will’s January 6, 2016 article in Building Design + Construction; its CBRE Vancouver project illustrates the idea, but the article does not claim measured proof of specific outcomes.
The four moves at a glance
| Design move | What to provide | How it supports flow |
|---|---|---|
| Stack anchor destinations | Bookable rooms, lounges, copy areas and administrative functions distributed across floors | Gives people practical reasons to move vertically and creates opportunities for unplanned encounters |
| Activate client spaces | Reception and waiting combined with informal work and cultural destinations; client-facing areas placed on more than one level | Brings visitors and employees into shared parts of the workplace instead of isolating reception as a pass-through zone |
| Make movement enjoyable | A central, prominent stair; conversational width; visible landings; welcoming corridors with places to pause | Makes circulation a usable social experience rather than a route people try to avoid |
| Facilitate collaboration everywhere | Charging, network and Wi-Fi access, screen sharing and ways to record ideas throughout the workplace | Allows work to continue in lounges, cafés, meeting areas and other informal settings instead of one technology-equipped room |
These are design strategies, not a quantified performance standard. The source presents them as ways to encourage movement, interaction and collaboration; it does not provide a scoring system or before-and-after measurements.
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1. Stack destinations that make people move
Use anchors people actually need
A multi-level plan can feel disconnected when every floor contains the same isolated workstations and no reason to visit another level. The first recommendation is to distribute shared destinations vertically. Examples named in the article include bookable rooms, lounges, copy functions and administrative spaces. Each destination should have a clear everyday purpose, so movement is tied to work rather than treated as circulation for its own sake.
Start by listing the functions that many teams use but that do not need to sit beside every desk. Place selected functions on different floors and make their locations legible. A bookable room on an upper level can serve a project team from another floor; a copy or administrative point can become a useful stop on the way to a meeting; a lounge can provide a less formal setting for a conversation. The intent is not to make routine tasks inconvenient. Keep essential services convenient while distributing enough shared value to create a connected vertical rhythm.
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Build a deliberate vertical sequence
Map the likely paths between anchors before fixing the final plan. Ask which floor people start on, what destination they need next and whether the route passes through a place where a short conversation can happen. A useful sequence might connect a meeting-room cluster on one level to a café or lounge above it, with shared support functions placed along the route. The article does not prescribe a particular floor-by-floor formula, so the sequence should follow each organization’s work patterns.
- Identify shared functions used by several teams.
- Distribute those functions across the available levels rather than concentrating every amenity on one floor.
- Check that each destination is easy to find from the stair and primary corridors.
- Keep the route useful for both planned meetings and brief, unplanned interactions.
Protect convenience while creating connection
Vertical distribution works only when the destinations are worth the trip. Avoid moving a high-frequency, time-critical task so far away that staff experience the layout as a penalty. Instead, combine necessary functions with social or collaborative uses. A shared administrative point beside a lounge, for example, can support a practical errand and a short exchange in the same journey. Treat the plan as a network of complementary anchors, not a collection of attractions scattered without purpose.
2. Turn client areas into active workplace territory
Make reception more than a doorway
The second recommendation combines reception and waiting with informal work and cultural destinations. That changes the visitor zone from a checkpoint into a place with a reason to stay. Informal work settings can support an employee waiting for a meeting, while cultural elements can give visitors and staff a shared point of interest. The article’s principle is to let client-facing space participate in daily workplace life rather than separating it completely from employees.
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Distribute client-facing destinations vertically
Client areas do not have to be confined to the entry level. The article suggests distributing client-facing destinations across multiple floors so visitors and employees circulate and interact. This can be appropriate when different teams host clients in different parts of the business or when a signature meeting space belongs near an upper-level gathering area.
Vertical distribution requires a clear arrival experience. A visitor should know where to go from reception, how to reach the next level and where to wait or meet. Use visible routes and consistent wayfinding rather than relying on staff escorts for every transition. At the same time, decide which employee areas should remain private and control access accordingly; the article offers a design direction, not a security or privacy specification.
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Plan the visitor and employee choreography
Draw separate paths for a first-time visitor, an employee hosting that visitor and an employee moving between ordinary work areas. Look for points where those paths can overlap comfortably without blocking circulation. A waiting area beside small meeting rooms can support quick appointments, while a larger client destination on another floor can connect to a café or lounge used every day. The goal is purposeful overlap, not congestion.
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Give the stair a central role
The article recommends a stair that is central, prominent and wide enough for conversation. A stair hidden behind a service door sends a different message from one that is visible from the main arrival zone. Central placement makes the vertical connection easy to understand; prominence makes it a natural choice; conversational width allows two people to move together without treating the stair as a purely functional shaft.
Perkins and Will frame the idea this way: “The principles of active design teach us that users are more likely to use the staircase if it is an enjoyable experience.” In this article, that sentence is a design rationale attributed to the firm, not a separately verified scientific finding. Use it to guide experience decisions, then confirm the resulting layout against the standards that apply to the project.
Use landings and sightlines as social infrastructure
Landings can do more than break a flight of stairs. The source recommends visual connections between floors and identifies landings as opportunities to improve the experience. A person approaching the stair should be able to understand where it leads and see activity on adjacent levels where appropriate. Those views can make the building feel connected and help people recognize colleagues or destinations before they arrive.
Do not turn every landing into a furniture display. Keep the route clear, and place any pause point where it will not obstruct people using the stair. The design challenge is to provide moments of orientation and respite while preserving a comfortable, obvious path.
Make corridors places to pause
Welcoming corridors with periodic perches or respite places extend the social route beyond the stair. A perch can support a short conversation, a quick check-in or a brief break without requiring a formal meeting room. Spacing and placement should respond to actual circulation so that a person can stop without creating a bottleneck. Corridors should still read as routes first; pause points work when they are visible, comfortable and out of the way.
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Verify implementation requirements separately
The 2016 article does not establish current building-code, fire-safety, accessibility, egress, acoustic or occupancy requirements. Stair dimensions, handrails, guarding, door clearances, travel distances and accessible routes must be checked against the rules in the project’s jurisdiction by qualified professionals. The same caution applies to any furniture or technology placed near circulation paths.
4. Put collaboration capability wherever people gather
Distribute the basic capabilities
The fourth recommendation is technology-neutral. It calls for charging, network and Wi-Fi access, screen sharing and the ability to record ideas to be readily available throughout the workplace. These capabilities should not be concentrated in one designated collaboration room. If a useful conversation happens in a café, lounge, corridor perch or client waiting area, people should be able to continue the work there.
Plan capability before selecting equipment. Mark likely gathering points on the floor plan and check each one for power, reliable connectivity, a way to share content and a simple method for capturing decisions or ideas. “Record ideas” can mean whatever method the project supports; the article does not name a product or prescribe a particular system.
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Match technology to the setting
A formal meeting room may need a different screen-sharing arrangement from an informal lounge. A café may prioritize charging and wireless access, while a small collaboration nook may need an easy way to display and capture content. The principle is consistency of access, not identical hardware in every location. Establish a baseline of capabilities, then adapt the implementation to the space, privacy needs and expected use.
Make the capability discoverable
Technology that exists but cannot be found will not support flow. Use clear controls, visible connection points and simple instructions appropriate to each setting. Include the collaboration points in orientation and room-booking information. When people can move to another floor without losing access to the tools they need, the vertical plan becomes more resilient.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Apply the four moves as one system
Start with a movement map
- Mark the main arrival point, stairs, elevators and primary corridors.
- List shared destinations, client-facing spaces and informal gathering points.
- Draw the common routes between those places for visitors, hosts and employees.
- Identify where a route lacks a useful destination, a comfortable pause point or collaboration capability.
- Revise the layout so that movement is purposeful, visible and supported without making essential work unnecessarily difficult.
Compare layout options on four questions
The article provides no quantified scoring method, but it identifies four practical comparison axes. Use them to test alternative plans:
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- Vertical distribution: Are shared destinations and support functions meaningfully spread across floors?
- Visitor connection: Do client spaces connect with everyday employee activity without compromising privacy or security?
- Circulation quality: Are the stair and corridors visible, comfortable and equipped with places to pause?
- Capability coverage: Can people charge, connect, share and capture ideas wherever they are likely to gather?
Record the reasoning behind each choice. A plan may perform well on one axis and poorly on another; documenting the trade-off is more useful than pretending every layout has the same strengths.
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The article describes CBRE’s relocation from a single-floor workplace to four floors in the newly constructed MNP Tower. The project is described as nearly 23,000 square feet. Its reception area is surrounded by small-to-medium meeting rooms. An employee café on an upper level is positioned as a daily gathering place, and the executive boardroom sits beside the café. A central stair connects the four levels, with two landings between every floor.
Those elements show how the four moves can be combined: meeting rooms and reception activate the arrival zone; the café and boardroom create an upper-level anchor; the central stair makes the levels legible; and the route between destinations can support informal contact. They are a project description, not a controlled test. The article reports no named study, quantified collaboration outcome or before-and-after measurement, so the case should be used as an illustrative precedent rather than proof that a particular arrangement will produce a guaranteed result.
Limits to keep in view
This guidance comes from a January 6, 2016 trade-publication article about a specific workplace project. It does not provide present-day technology specifications, measured health effects, generalizable outcome data or confirmation of current regulatory compliance. Before construction, engage the relevant architects, engineers, accessibility specialists, fire and life-safety professionals, technology planners and facility stakeholders. They can translate the design intent into a compliant, maintainable plan for the building and jurisdiction.
The useful test is straightforward: every floor should offer a reason to visit, every visitor route should connect to real workplace activity, every vertical route should feel comfortable and legible, and every likely gathering point should support the collaboration work people need to do there.
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