Our story

Driven by a duty to change how spaces should support our wellbeing

The quest for change

A quest for health & happiness at work

The Savanna Studio is a product of decades of experience, leadership and coaching.

Philip, our co-founder, was a senior executive in the ITC industry for 4 decades with companies including Nokia, Dell, Sony Ericsson and Plantronics (now Poly). Early on he witnessed the positive impacts Smarter Working principles had on employees to improve health & happiness and boost productivity.

With the pandemic of 2020 stirring up our relationship with work and office spaces, we ambitiously took on the challenge to create the world's best space to work.

From frameworks to spaces

Smarter Working is defined as the practice of allowing people to work where and when is best as long as it delivers results, saves costs and respects our health and the planet.

As part of consulting on Smarter Working principles and approaches for international clients since 2017, a framework began to emerge that simplified an ever more complex landscape of theories driven by domain experts.

The resulting framework of EASI (Energise, Author, Share, Interact) is a distillation of 4 core activities of knowledge work specifying the ideal conditions needed for healthy and productive work.

Ideal conditions

Launching Savanna

Building a well building platform

With the realisation that hybrid and distributed work fundamentally meant having access to suitable spaces, so began the mission to build an individual workspace that embodied all of the EASI principles.

A proof of concept Studio came to life at a domestic apartment in Brugge, Belgium where a single 10m2 bedroom was fully converted. Watch the video.

Following on from the success of this space, the team began the task to create a space unconstrained by an existing building and into the Savanna Studio you see today where it can be enjoyed for work, play and living.

CEO, CO-FOUNDER

Philip Vanhoutte

philip@smarterworking.io

Leveraging a rewarding international career in the ITC industry, my passion for personal productivity tools and communication & collaboration solutions has morphed into a singular purpose: accelerating the realization of human potential.

I champion the adoption of Smarter Working: a holistic human centered work design practice that unifies space, technology and people disciplines. Co-authored "The Smarter Working Manifesto", a definitive guide on how to shape the best work style. Workplace Effectiveness Benchmarking, Activity Based Working, SoundScaping and Distributed Work Success are some of the innovations I promote in this field.

In my quest for Health & Happiness at Work I learned that Nature Deficit Disorder has produced highest ever burnouts, work induced sickness and a struggling workforce. With the launch of EASI Rituals and Spaces, there should never be just another day at the office.

CPO, CO-FOUNDER

Jan Vanhoutte

jan@smarterworking.io

I joined Smarter Working in 2021 to focus on how we can solve the needs of many unhappy professionals around the world by being an ambassador for modern work rituals, creating supportive spaces where we can work and energise, and connecting us with inspiring places close to nature.

I started my career as a designer in FMCG branding and advertising and progressed to account management for SaaS marketing tech and product marketing in the online advertising space.

I realised soon that I love to create no matter what the medium (whether it is a mobile app or a sketching a new design for a building). That became my passion and key energy driver in my life.

In 2016 I co-founded an exciting tech startup (www.shepper.com) helping global businesses manage and collect physical data on geographically distributed assets using a 200,000 strong network of trusted people using our platform and app. Think Transport for London checking on thousands of bus stops for graffiti, Airbnb properties being checked for cleanliness and consumer goods companies wanting to see their products in store at scale.

That rewarding yet taxing experience also taught me that working long hours in often unsatisfactory environments place a heavy toll on your wellbeing and creativity.