Daria Mircea has recently joined our team as Senior Workspace Architect, with the mission to support our clients’ leasing efforts by providing a highly personalized experience. We sat down with Daria to learn more about her background, how architecture and digitalization are intertwined, and the future of the office. 

Daria’s passion for architecture goes way back, as she comes from a family of architects. She remembers her parents working on projects, drawing buildings. To her, it was like they had the greatest jobs ever, so she knew she wanted to follow the same path.

After finishing her studies in architecture and getting her Master’s degree in Urban Planning, she worked for the Union of Romanian Architects, where she learned something that would come in handy years later: property management.

By chance, in 2016, she came across a LinkedIn job announcement that required an Occupancy Planner. This role wasn’t very well known in Romania back then, but she’s fond of projects that foster innovation and creativity. 

She started gaining a deep understanding of how people and spaces are connected, in ways that HR or Financial departments might not understand. This led to creating efficient space occupancy strategies that paid off both for tenants and landlords.

Over the years, expanding her role as Workplace Advisor at CBRE, Daria worked with different businesses and departments to understand their needs and expectations from their office space, delivering workplace transformation and change management to corporate clients. 

A space should be planned according to the needs it serves. It should be adapted to people. It is definitely influenced by organizational cultures and very importantly, by change. The pandemic has forced us all to be more open-minded and to adopt new perspectives on the way and the places from where we work. 

The need for more flexibility existed also before the pandemic, but the last 2 years showed us the real benefits it can bring, she added. 

Daria believes that we are now looking at more dynamic and slim real estate. Even though at the beginning of 2020, some players believed that they would soon return back to normal, in 2021, most of them understood that the office needs to be reimagined. 

And this presents many benefits for architects as well. As more and more companies drop rigid space organizations and are looking towards new work style trends, architects can transform these spaces into personalized, creative playgrounds. 

It’s an opportunity for us to express ourselves and our imagination. We are inspired by these new expectations people have from their spaces and this allows us to create environments that fit their needs in ways unmet before. Furthermore, by giving people a more dynamic space, we also give them the tools to arrange it however they like. They feel like they can leave their own mark. 

Offices will continue to exist, she says, especially due to the benefits they offer: ergonomic furniture, natural light, silence, connectivity, well-being features, socializing opportunities. 

At the same time, we won’t have only 2 workspace options anymore – office & home. People now need a wide range of options – satellite offices, headquarters, home offices, remote areas, co-working hubs for example. This fits their needs and even emotional moods way better, increases productivity, and saves time and money. 

Digitalization also plays a critical role in the office industry and architecture. Tenants are now looking for landlords that can answer their requests for a more technological approach to work and this starts with the showcasing and leasing process. 

This leads us to her role here and the reason she joined Bright Spaces. 

Right now, future tenants start by choosing a space based on square feet, cost and a limited view of how the space could fit their needs. They get a 2D test fit later in the process, which might prevent them from making the best data-based decisions. 

Our plan is to move this test fit sooner in the leasing process and give clients the opportunity to see how a space will look personalized for their needs and requirements with a full 3D, interactive space showcasing experience. 

We will do this in a digital environment, adding an extra layer of innovation to our existing solution. Tenants will be able to receive these designs way faster than usual and will be able to access them online, whenever and from wherever they want.

At the same time, for our clients – the landlords – this represents a highly competitive advantage that will allow them to differentiate themselves from the competition.

They will play a card that will definitely increase their chances to close a deal, besides positioning them as a future-thinking player. 

---