Two years ago, Toronto-based SDI Design principals Mardi Najafi and Joanne Chan asked each other a transformative question: How can we future-proof workplaces?
With more than 50 years of blended experience in the industry, the pair had witnessed and studied various victories and failures in office design throughout the decades, from the rise of executive hierarchies in the 1950s and ‘60s; to the disruption of technology in the 1990s; and the fallout from the pandemic-driven 2020s. Reflecting on what comes next, Najafi and Chan shared a self-professed “eureka moment.” Instead of delivering static workplaces that would fulfill clients’ needs today, they would begin experimenting with a flexible design approach that would anticipate and support those same clients’ needs into the future. Before long, their Adaptive Planning method was born.
“When we joined forces two years ago, we started layering our fields into the projects that came to us,” says Najafi, whose background in retail, hospitality and branding has proven the perfect complement to Chan’s own expertise in workplace design. “In our opinion, the true measure of design isn’t how well it serves today’s needs. It’s how effortlessly it adapts to tomorrow’s possibilities.”
In Adaptive Planning, Najafi and Chan reimagine today’s workplace as a nimble site that can readily evolve to satisfy a business’s long-term needs. Every design decision — from interior architecture to furniture, lighting systems, plumbing and mechanical — is made with flexibility and efficiency in mind. “There are no fixed regimented elements within the space,” says Najafi. The method outlines eight design principles that emerged from their historical research and from new data collected from 2016 to 2021.
Designing for change, not completion
To start, Najafi and Chan studied past clients in the 10,000 to 50,000 square foot range. They discovered that regardless of industry, there exists a scope of square foot metrics that can help inform a company’s space requirements based on current and forecasted headcounts. “It’s very scientific,” says Chan. “The idea is to use data for design, rather than emotion or aesthetics only.” These metrics do not dictate how much desk space each person requires. Instead, they can help a design team determine how best to utilize an entire office space to support current needs and future growth. By maximizing utility per square foot, every inch of the workplace becomes scalable, allowing an office space to contract and evolve over time at minimal reinvestment cost.
Once square footage requirements are determined, the Adaptive Planning method considers how best to organize that available space. Instead of assigning cubicles or individual offices to different departments, staff are encouraged to congregate based on projects and are provided equal access to shared spaces like reservable neighbourhoods, desk-sharing hubs, and multi-purpose rooms. Under this approach, a company can more easily accommodate growth, hybrid attendance, and shifting corporate priorities within its existing footprint, thereby reducing (and often eliminating) the need for future renovation. “If a team has grown double, for example, we can move that team to another neighbourhood, rather than trying to change the space,” says Chan.
Those same shared spaces are designed to support different types of activities — focus, social, collaboration and support — giving employees the freedom to choose workstations that best support their daily moods and needs. They are also fitted with freestanding furniture systems and movable partitions that establish the parameters of a room without the need for permanence. “Furniture is no longer just a desk, a chair, a table,” says Chan. “It’s a power system that creates a definition of space. It can be easily changed within 24 or 48 hours.”
Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and power systems are also designed to support future layout shifts. Designers can utilize ceiling grids, raised floors, and other creative means to ensure infrastructure components remain accessible and adaptable over time.
From allocating space to creating opportunities
These first principles of Adaptive Planning are distinctly visible in SDI Design’s recent project for accounting firm Crowe Soberman. Completed in early 2026, the 28,000-sq.ft. Toronto office spans two floors, combining open neighbourhoods and collaborative hubs with private offices, quiet focus rooms, phone booths, and meeting suites. A hospitality-inspired café dubbed the Crowe’s Nest sits at its centre, serving as a lunchroom that doubles as a gathering space for informal meetings, celebrations, and town halls. Each space is equipped with adaptable furniture and power systems, ensuring that future growth can be accommodated through reconfiguration instead of costly renovation. By embracing the Adaptive Planning method, Crowe Soberman has extended the lifespan of its workplace while maximizing its long-term value.
The same can be said for Northleaf Capital Partners, whose 40,000-sq.-ft. Toronto-based financial office was also recently reimagined by SDI Design. Here, the Adaptive Planning method best presents itself through a modular design. The floorplan is highly symmetrical, with uniform workstations and standardized meeting room blocks that are equipped with repeated parts and inventory. The way Najafi and Chan see it, by reducing variation in core components, designers can create a kit-of-parts system that facilities teams can manipulate over time. Around these repeated blocks is ample circulation space, guiding users towards communal break-out spaces like a library and lounge. A large central staircase connects colleagues on various floors and ensures full utilization of the office space, while modular wall systems help with acoustic control. Above, a wood-clad ceiling grid not only establishes visual warmth but achieves the infrastructure flexibility required for a successful Adaptive Planning method.
Another consideration of the method is layered flexibility, a process by which an office’s various spaces are broken down into a hierarchy of adaptability. While furniture, artwork and signage are considered “highly-flexible” and easy to change, things like partitions, doors, lighting systems, flooring and finishes are “semi-flexible,” requiring more effort to adapt. A building’s core structure and services like washrooms, reception areas, and entry points are “fixed,” sitting lowest on the ease of adaptability scale. By identifying a hierarchy of adaptability, companies can more easily determine where best to invest their money now and in the future. “It’s to think about design as a business tool,” says Chan.
This principle was successfully applied in a 2025 renovation for Mattel Headquarters Canada in Mississauga. Working with a pre-set budget, SDI Design was initially contracted to perform cosmetic upgrades on the 26,000-sq.ft. space, including new flooring, paint and lighting. Using the Adaptive Planning method, SDI Design was able to establish a more strategic approach that would retain and repurpose 75 per cent of the building’s existing elements, maximizing value and allowing funds to be redirected to higher-impact upgrades within a 14,000-sq.ft. radius. In addition to repurposing existing furniture and reconfiguring spaces to incorporate the method’s signature collaboration areas and flexible work zones, the design team paid considerable attention to brand integration not only through graphics, but through a dedicated brand activation space in the office’s lobby that is intended to showcase products and support launches, campaigns, employee initiatives, visitor experiences and activations.
Core to the Adaptive Planning method, brand integration ensures that spaces always feel intentional and personalized, despite their ability to shift and change over time. “We know that for many workplaces, bringing the brand and corporate culture into a space is really important,” says Najafi. “Most importantly, the branding culture has to remain visible even as the layout shifts.” In addition to integrating the brand into Mattel’s highly visible reception space, graphics were introduced into the office’s wayfinding and shared spaces. The result is a renovation that thoughtfully reconsiders the client’s perceived needs and delivers solutions that will serve the workplace over a more significant period.
Future proof
Reflecting on the development and application of their Adaptive Planning method, Najafi makes references to Henry Ford’s famous (but apocryphal) statement that if he had asked people how to improve transportation, they would have merely envisioned faster horses, not the game-changing Ford Model T. “We don’t start with the programming that the client gives us in the kickoff meeting,” says Najafi. “We listen to the programming in our research and design-thinking phase, but we bring best practices and out-of-the-box thinking to the table. That’s what Adaptive Planning is. It future proofs the design.”
Indeed, Adaptive Planning is not a checklist, but a mindset; a stimulus that inspires designers to embrace a role in business strategy and provide creative solutions for managing opportunities and uncertainty. Somewhat metaphorically, the method also challenges designers to be nimble and adaptable themselves, as the industries they serve continue to evolve and change. “We don’t have a crystal ball as designers, nor do our clients,” concludes Najafi. “But successful designers aren’t the ones who know the most. They’re the ones who never stop learning.”
As featured in the September-October 2026 issue of Canadian Interiors magazine.
