DESIGN & INTERIORS
THE CHANGING FACE OF THE OFFICE
Ibrahim Imam, Co-CEO at PlanRadar, evaluates how and why office design and layouts have undergone a significant transformation since the Covid-19 pandemic.
There’s no doubt the design of commercial office spaces is undergoing a revolution, and it’s not only in the UK. Worldwide, businesses are taking stock of their spaces in the wake of a seismic shift in worker attitudes to the places they work in.
Fascinated by this preferential sea change, we decided to aggregate the mood of professionals, and those who specify the offices they work in, across 12 different countries.
The key takeaway for us was that office design and layouts have undergone a significant transformation since the Covid-19 pandemic. The single dominant change, seen across almost all territories covered (excluding the US) is a stagnation, and in some instances a contraction in office size. Interestingly, most expect the workspace to remain at pre-pandemic size or even shrink due to an increasingly remote, multi-location workforce.
Certainly, the rise of the remote worker has, inevitably, encouraged an increase in flexi-desk work, with workers now expected to schedule allocated days in a phased approach. Putting this in context, around half of professionals in the US now work remotely, with over a third in the UK following suit. With roughly 20% of staff in the rest of the dozen countries we researched preferring to spend the day-to-day online rather than in the physical workspace, it would seem a hybrid model is here to stay, and it’s dictating design decisions.
No doubt this more elastic attitude towards the traditional office can offer a reason for the recent explosion in the number of co-working spaces now available on an international scale. Although it’s true these assets had been on the rise before the pandemic, the amount has rocketed over the last couple of years. The UK alone has over 6,000 of them, and it’s a global phenomenon as the idea of the ‘nomad’ worker grows with over 42 different countries now offering digital visas, encouraging further uptake in the remote worker lifestyle.
Interestingly, in Europe, co-working spaces are on the rise in suburban and rural areas, reflecting the mass urban exodus of many professionals during the pandemic.
46 | TOMORROW’S FM
As many have moved to the countryside, co-workspace developers are seeing an opportunity to offer workers the benefit of a comfortable professional environment without having to travel into the inner-city HQ.
Beyond the shifting nature of physical office attendance, the physical interior of the workspace is also undergoing significant changes. Given workforces have become more of a remote entity, the office needs to reflect this chance in behaviour.
The office has, to a large extent, now become a location for specific, predominantly social, collaborative activities, fostering team culture or for face-to-face client meetings. This is emphasised by an increasing preference for collaborative, open-plan environments, which are better suited for group work and team activities.
Additionally, a number of emerging design trends are at play, with a growing appetite for flexible spaces amongst both employer and employee. This includes, but is not limited to, modular partitions and meeting pods as well as lightweight furniture which enables the workplace layout to flex with agility to fluctuating staff levels and business requirements.
Wellbeing and sustainability are, rightly, big issues so it was unsurprising that our research should reveal such a massive appetite for office design solutions that put these values at their heart. Qualities such as biophilia and optimal indoor air quality (IAQ) were flagged as important considerations, after all, who wants to commute day-to- day if the space they’re operating in isn’t a hygienic and low-stress environment.
Ultimately, Covid-19 acted as a catalyst, but we were already on the move to a remote (or at least hybrid) model before that event. Offices are now less regarded as places to show up day-to-day, these assets have changed purpose, becoming locations where ideas are shared and developed in a collaborative environment.
We’re seeing the development of a more flexible and professional ecosystem as a result, and I welcome it.
www.planradar.com/gb/
twitter.com/TomorrowsFM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54
