Less than 10 mins
Insights from Orgatec Riyadh – Rooted in Culture, Designed for the Future
We’ve just wrapped up two inspiring days at Orgatec Workplace Riyadh, where I-AM had the pleasure of joining conversations that are shaping the future of workspaces in the Kingdom.
Day 1: Rooted in the Region, Ready for the World
Our Managing Director of I-AM Saudi, Mohammad Al Zamil, joined a panel on Saudi workplace innovation. His message was clear: wellbeing and agility are no longer add-ons—they are strategy.
As he put it: “Surprising results happen when you let people communicate.”
Through long-form co-creation workshops, Mohammad showed how unexpected needs surface—like meditation rooms proving more valuable than gyms. For him, acoustic comfort, zoning for different modes of work, and planning for hybrid patterns (with occupancy at 65–70%) are not just design choices, but retention strategies.
Key Takeouts
- Co-creation workshops uncover real needs: letting people communicate reveals priorities beyond the original brief (e.g., meditation rooms over gyms).
- Agility is essential: layouts now favour huddle rooms, project spaces, and flows that balance connectivity and privacy.
- Wellbeing as experience: acoustic comfort, zoning, and environment design are retention and performance strategies.
- Hybrid readiness: smart shared capacity, hot-desking, and infrastructure planning support 65–70% occupancy and distributed teams.
Day 2: Beyond the Brief – Office Designs That Changed the Game
From our Dubai studio, Sumeet Ahmad, Architecture & Design Director, joined a PechaKucha sprint asking what makes a workplace transformative. She highlighted I-AM’s life-led approach: balancing collaboration with focus and embedding heritage into daily rituals. Reflecting on the Royal Commission for AlUla office project, she said: “There’s a difference between a need to come and a want to come—let’s create spaces people want to come to.” The session underscored how data, cultural values, and sensory experiences can elevate offices from functional to truly memorable.
Key Takeouts
- Transform brief into experience: design is about creating feelings, rituals, and culture, not just fulfilling functional requirements.
- Evidence-based decisions: data on people, environment, and organisation informs choices and defends design rationale.
- Life-led workplaces: balance collaboration with focus, integrate heritage, wellbeing, and adaptability to make spaces people want to come to.
- Sensory & cultural integration: materials, colours, and patterns evoke emotion while staying locally relevant and avoiding clichés.
Looking Ahead
The conversations at Orgatec Riyadh point to a clear vision: Saudi workplaces that are human-centred and culturally warm, yet technology-forward and agile—international in standard, unmistakably Saudi in character.
We’re excited to continue shaping this journey, together.
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