The change in office design: adapting to the new generations and their work approaches
Office design is changing rapidly. The new generations are accessing the labor market with new professional challenges and with much more open and free approaches, which do not prioritize the hierarchy and the way of working is more personalized and informal.
They are no longer "office workers", now they are wandering spirits. Thanks to the digital age, it is possible to work everywhere and this freedom is preferable to a fixed space. They appreciate the workspaces shared, flexible, minimalist and with mobile disposition.
new work habits more and more resemble those of everyday life. Hence the need to create free, comfortable spaces for common use, without an assigned table and with multiple possibilities to work alone, in groups, in pairs or via teleconference.
Office design with the soul of home
The offices of the XNUMXst century are lived spaces that transmit home spirit. A place of exchange, where comfort and aesthetics promote worker productivity. Hence, companies create work environments more in line with the arrival of these new generations in the labor market. One of the most pronounced tendencies is that of moving the universe home to office design, through furniture, colors and materials make them more familiar and close. This is the new way to retain the employee so that they feel in a recognizable and pleasant place, far from the old and sober office concept. A spontaneous and creative place, where things happen, synergies are created and new ideas and projects arise.
versatile furniture
Workspaces have changed and the office furniture adapts to the new times with flexible designs that allow coexistence and, at the same time, isolation when necessary: phone boxes, sofas, relaxation rooms, cafeteria-furniture, game tables are concepts that are beginning to be common in new offices. They disappear, for example, large and bulky cabinets, since at present the paper has been replaced by the digital world and is stored in the cloud. Everything is being reinvented and the new concept of office design offers multiple possibilities, which in Limobel Inwo we are very present, analyzing, experimenting and applying to our products.
The office as a brand image
Companies are using the design of their offices as a powerful marketing element to strengthen your brand and transmit your values. Through interior design, they send a clear message of modernity, avant-garde and innovation. In these spaces they receive clients, suppliers and journalists with the same naturalness that is received in a house. It has been discovered that the corporate culture is transmitted directly through the design of the offices, with a double purpose: to give an exterior image of renewal, progress and adaptation to new times; and on the other, to create synergies between its employees and clients to stimulate creativity and innovation. A groundbreaking office design that went around the world a few years ago was the headquarters of Google in Tel Aviv, a project that proposed very different and playful spaces for the different activities of its employees (image above. See the complete report here).
Mobility in the new office design
Workspaces flexible, nomadic and itinerant they allow the worker to move in different areas of the office depending on the task they are doing, the visits they receive, or even the state of mind of the worker. For example, there are more and more frequent standing desks, that allow an employee to work sitting or standing, to always keep moving and thus avoid a sedentary lifestyle at work. The new office design is designed to force users to move as much as possible between the different areas. A complete paradigm shift in relation to the old offices that precisely sought to shorten travel distances to optimize work.
acoustic efficiency
El and cleaner open space is a German concept born in the 1950s that aims to create versatile and open spaces, where mobile furniture can be quickly transformed and allows for various uses. The offices with open spaces are widespread throughout the world and work very well, as long as you measure the acoustic impact from space. Telephones and conversations can be unbearable if acoustic insulation is not planned with sound absorbing materials, partitions or separators. Environmental noise from open spaces is one of the main causes of work absenteeism and decreased team productivity. The office design project must foresee areas and also isolated rooms to meet or talk on the phone. The communication between them works like blood vessels creating relaxation or play areas. The good distribution of spaces is essential to achieve optimal acoustics in work spaces.
Environmental awareness
Sustainability is not a fashion, it is a lifestyle that must be permeated in all areas of life. daily life and work. In state-of-the-art offices, the concepts of branding, flexibility, mobility or acoustics are not important if they are not under the umbrella of the sustainability. This can be covered from many points of action: use of organic raw materials, recycled and recyclable for furniture, coverings and textiles; efficiency and energy savings in all light and weather elements; good waste management generated by the company for recycling or reuse... A principle of sustainability can be applied to all processes and products at any stage, from extraction, production or transportation, to the end of their useful life. All this must be a shared responsibility, first, from companies exercising good environmental praxis; and then, of the workers, whose responsibility is to achieve and maintain the sustainability goals set by the company.
THE OFFICE IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE OFFICE!
Photos via Unplash: Damian Zaleski, Cowomen, Austin Distel, Google and Andrea Davis
