The Business Times is asked local architects what they think the office of the future will look like and what changes they expect to see in offices, what new features they expect to become common and/or best practices and ways in which designs can be flexible, in case future issues call for modifications to designs.
Our Firm Principal and President, Daniel Engen discussed how the design of office spaces will change in a post-Covid-19 era. Check out the excerpt below:
Interviewer: “In general, what do you think the office of the future will look like?”
Daniel Engen: “It has taken just 100 days to change decades of office environment work patterns. It seems we have spent the last ten years removing visual barriers between office workers and creating open collaborative environments rather than a sea of viewless cubicles. We have been planning space to let natural light deeper into office environments and encouraging views to the outdoors for all. Design challenges were presented in the resulting drawbacks including lack of privacy, greater individual distraction, and added noise pollution. Planners have begun to incorporate quiet hoteling spaces for sensitive phone conversations or distraction-free working and small group meeting spaces where coworkers can problem solve without distracting others in the open office areas.
The availability of high-speed wireless internet has added a greater level of flexibility for workers. With a laptop, connected to the network wirelessly, we see maximum flexibility as possible now. An office layout that offers a variety of spatial types; open group, closed view, quiet, casual flow, conference, private, inspiring, outdoors, hoteling, is already the office design being sought by many today. Now we can add the work-from-home category to business types that never before seriously considered it as a constructive option. Many companies have been dipping their toes in the staff flexibility pool in recent years by permitting a work-at-home-day format as an employee option or perk. The last 100 days have been the world’s largest Beta Test on the work-from-home typology. It has taught many traditional office environments structured companies that when faced with the challenge of all employees collaborating at a distance from their homes, the hurdles can often be overcome and the work can be accomplished. Possibly it is less efficient and certainly, it is less collaborative depending on the business type, but time is being saved by avoiding commutes, needless meetings, and other distractions. Yes, there are distractions at home. Pets, children, the never-ending Zoom calls just to manage a business in this unpredicted crisis. After all the dust settles far beyond these 100 days, many companies will likely choose to maintain work-at-home policies and reduce the size of their permanent in-office square footage and the costs that go with it.
The thought of coming back to an office environment with minimal walls and common HVAC systems brings up questions when social distancing is desired and the threat of Covid 19 persists. Greater workstation distance, greater surface cleaning protocols, reducing shared tools and clean filtered air will be key points that staff will desire in the immediate future for health and safety. The office of the future can be designed now with so much available Beta Testing information at our fingertips from office workers and companies who have been finding ways to be successful over these last 100 days. As companies make plans to open their offices again, safety has become the primary topic on staff and employer’s minds. Staggering staff workdays to reduce numbers of persons in the office or separating workstations, adding panels between workers, and considering restroom assignments are changes being implemented today. Changing office flow to break up large groups of work stations with open area buffers or partitioned team conference spaces will likely increase the square footage per person need in office design. The personal desk space needs have not been increasing for the standard workspace but the general open and shared work areas of an office environment have increased and will likely increase with social distancing requests. With the possibility of more workers staying at home, a hybrid office solution that increases the SF / person may be easily achievable within the current space for many companies. Designers may use more glass partitions to allow sunlight and view while maintaining workers physical separation needs. Breaking a large office layout into smaller workstation groups may minimize social contacts and aide in separating HVAC zones. Designing more individual-use restrooms verses group-use restrooms has been a recent personal privacy discourse in facility design which may see an increase given the Covid 19 outbreak.
By now we have all experienced the slowness of a shared screen or the dropped telecall or the Zoom lag that doesn’t register simultaneous speech of multiple persons. Technology will improve and overcome but how can we design to match the need to be distant some or all of the time with the value that in-person collaboration and social interactions provide. Work touch-down stations for staff that only attend intermittently for important meetings, collaborations, or social events but typically spend their work time in their home office may be more logical than a permanent in-office station. Work stations and collaboration spaces that include visual technology for improved teleconferencing may be more hardware-focused but design parameters such as minimizing the noise impact of teleconferences for adjacent non-participants brings back the need for partitioned space. Improved social distancing and inner-office co-working when neighboring staff are conducting distracting telecalls may bring changes in the current open office platform including the flow of space.
There are many more discussion nuances to the challenge of work environment change. One thing that stands out during this work-from-home Beta Test is the positive lifestyle changes we have realized by being more available for our family members, working on a back porch with the birds chirping and occasionally having a little extra personal time when a job is completed prior to the end of the day. 100 days and counting…let’s find new ways to be together through optimistic solutions and enhance our work-life futures with great design.”
Daniel Engen, AIA
VEBH Architects