Over the past four years, the approach to professional life has completely changed due to a series of factors that have favored smart working and increasingly distanced employees from headquarters. Due to profoundly changed personal and professional needs, the return to the office has led companies and designers to question how to divide spaces and furnish it in the best way to make it more comfortable then the home desk again. Here, with an excursus from the 1960s to today, we outlined how workplaces have changed, making predictions about the office of the future.
Office Design, from the Sixties to Today
The office design is no longer the same. If in the 1960s the intuitions of Eberhard and Wolfgang Schnelle on “transit offices” led to the first open-spaces, from the 1980s onwards, the strong hierarchization led to the spread of cubicles with many private rooms, usually branched out on long hallways where natural light was a mirage. This model remained in vogue until the 2000s, even if people began to talk about delocalization and remote working in the US, with the first experiments related to smart working.
In the new millennium, the open space model spread, considered more creative and positive for colleagues, even if more critical in terms of privacy. When large tech companies such as Google and Facebook began to make their headquarters more fun, using bright colors, typical living room furnishings, leisure spaces and relaxation areas, the idea of an informal office also took hold in the rest of the world.
Office Space Design, The Advent of Smart Working
In the era of smart working and hybrid offices, where workers go only when they have to meet colleagues or attend meetings in person, the personal desk has become “useless”, replaced by neutral workstations that change users very often. In this sense, the workplace has become more flexible, in favor of activity-based working. Each employee can now decide where to carry out their daily activities: from shared workstations in open spaces, to phone booths and meeting rooms for calls and meetings, or in informal areas; among sofas, armchairs and snack counters in kitchenettes.
If before the pandemic 70% of office spaces were private, after 2021 there was a reversal with 70% of environments designed for collaborative work and only 30% of individual offices and workstations, giving greater emphasis to privacy with a boost to partition walls and sound-absorbing screens, ideal for maintaining acoustic comfort.
The new office is therefore flexible, as it is open to continuous changes both in its structure than in its use, having practically abandoned partitions with fixed walls, except when strictly necessary at a structural level. With the Law 81 of April 1st, 2024, agile and hybrid work has been regulated in a more structured way in Italy, leading to the creation of new agreements between companies and employees.
Structured Offices to Bring Workers Back to the Office
Before talking about the office of the future, it’s crucial to understand the drivers of companies to bring employees back to their headquarters.
- The focus on well-being is fundamental: with hybrid work, the importance of having one’s own moments of privacy has been rediscovered;
- The layout of the spaces promotes concentration and productivity;
- Collaborative environments allow the circulation of ideas and exchange between employees;
- The quality of the air and the contribution of natural light allow employees to stay healthy in the workplace;
- Customization is linked to the flexibility of the layout and furnishings.
Office of the Future, What’s Going On?
By analyzing the changes in working methods in recent years, plus the desires and aspirations of the new generations, experts predict what the office of the future will be like. Here are some of the trends that will increasingly characterize the professional world.
Office of the Future and Hotelification
The hotelification trend brings together the office and the world of hospitality, making reception areas increasingly ready to welcome professionals looking for quiet places where they can efficiently carry out their daily tasks. An widespread model that will outline the office of the future.
Office of the Future, More Collaborative Areas
The larger spaces that companies have equipped to maintain safety distances during the pandemic are now used to set up areas dedicated to collaborative work. Thanks to open spaces designed to meet the needs of workers, they are encouraged to go to the headquarter more than two days per week.
Decentralization (Hub and Spoke)
No longer just headquarters, but also small offices located in the provinces will allow workers to reduce the time (and costs) of commuting to the office, going to the headquarters only on specific occasions. Furthermore, peripheral offices have lower management costs than large hubs in the main cities, allowing for significant savings in terms of business costs. This new trend is called hub and spoke and we will hear more and more about it in relation to the office of the future.
Office of the Future, Immersive Meetings
Thanks to augmented reality, it is possible to make meetings increasingly technological, with realistic avatars and data projections that facilitate the conduct of the speech and make them smarter. With the use of 3D technology, even colleagues connected from far away will seem to be sitting at the same table.
Simplification with AI
Artificial Intelligence was born to simplify the lives of workers, freeing them from the most mechanical and repetitive tasks, allowing to concentrate on creative assignments. A personal virtual assistant will therefore be able to make the work of many employees in a more efficient and less dispersive way.
Spaces for Wellbeing
Personal wellbeing and body care (as well as mind care) are the new priorities. For this reason, an office that is sensitive to the needs of its workers protects them from burnout by providing activities to relax and unwind the mind. Gyms, yoga and meditation rooms are just the beginning, accompanied by kitchenettes and snack areas for healthy snacks, which will increasingly gain space in the office of the future.