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On 1 September, at the 2016 Asia Workspace Innovation Summit in Shanghai, Silvia Minciarelli and Yaching Hsueh, Robarts Spaces Creative Director and Partner (Interior Design), respectively, gave a keynote presentation on “Office Without Boundaries” highlighting Robarts Spaces’ experience and learnings with Activity-Based Working (ABW) design. 

Their joint presentation, itself a symbol of the collaboration at the heart of ABW, featured four Robarts Spaces projects with ABW design for a range of clients including an international management consultancy, a premier China-based law firm, and international product manufacturing company. Various ABW design considerations and approaches were illustrated and shared. Interwoven through these project overviews was a poignant story of an employee who transitioned from a traditional to ABW office and discovered not only a new physical environment but a greater sense of community and connectedness in the space.  

On 7 January 2016, the Robarts Spaces team joined our client, Ogilvy & Mather, for the opening of "A 10-Year Legacy of igniting passions", in celebration of 10 years since we completed the O Gallery and the first Ogilvy office in Beijing’s Huali Building. The exhibition was opened by Miles Young, the global Chairman and CEO of Ogilvy, who also opened the O Gallery and Ogilvy office 10 years ago.

Prior to the opening, we joined Ogilvy’s Shenan Chuang in an interview with two design magazines, “缤纷SPACE" and "DESIGN WIRE", who also toured the newly remodeled Ogilvy office spaces—this being an ongoing and phased program of work with Ogilvy to entirely refresh their Beijing offices. The new workspaces are an excellent example of Activity Based Working (ABW), including 8 work cafes- one on each floor—under the concept of O-Café, as well as a refresh of the contemporary Chinese cultural elements and creativity that are at the heart of Beijing Ogilvy’s DNA.

On 4th November 2015, Robarts Spaces hosted a lively panel discussion on the ‘Power of Design’ in our Beijing offices. Panelists, moderated by Ms. Zheng Rong (partner, head of RS healthcare and education) included three clients from our healthcare, education and workplace sectors:

Roberta Lipson (CEO, United Family Hospitals and Clinics)
Jeff Bernstein (Managing Director, Penn Wharton China Center)
Richard Ma (Managing Partner, DaHui Lawyers)

The entire event was bilingual, using simultaneous translation, and was attended by over 40 participants, including clients, friends and staff members. The panelists were each genuine, speaking from the heart and from experience, and their insights were stimulating and educational. Although no-one doubted the power of design to create beauty as well as brand, it was interesting to probe deeper into how design can elevate our emotional experience of the environment, stimulating greater health and meaning for users, as well as making a contribution to culture.

Zheng Rong presented a paper as a plenary session speaker at the 15th China Hospital Construction Forum (Nanjing), 21-23 June 2014. Her presentation was entitled "Design For Health, Not Limited to Healthcare".

As of National Day (1 Oct) 2014, our healthcare projects in Mainland China that are either completed or already under construction, include projects in Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming, Chengdu, Qingdao and Guangzhou.