We are witnessing the shift to personal experiences of workplace and more psychological approaches to design. Technological innovation will also continue to transform working habits, in particular by making offices more virtual and more global.
This year we’re taking a holistic view and looking at the bigger picture of workplace design. All of the following trends are interconnected, they all affect one another.
The experience-based workspace
Experienced based workplaces are a relatively new phenomenon in the way we think about office culture and careers. This is thanks to the rising generation who now make up the majority of the workforce: millennials.
Leading 21st-century companies like Google and Facebook build their whole organization around their employees’ experiences, and have dedicated managers overseeing those experiences. You can see they are leaving the cubicles, moving into a communal, open office environment. Good design leads to a happy workforce, which leads to a boost in productivity.
The Hospitality Trend
The new Hospitality Workspace blends elements of the hotel, the sports club, the café, and the restaurant with the office.
In the words of Tanya Wood, Director of Soho Works, “People are spending less physical time at their formal office. They want spaces that actually cater for, and enhance, their working lives. That could be access to everything from gyms or social space, bedrooms, or a provision of studios and specialist equipment or facilities to support content creators.”
Co-working Expands
Coworking spaces are going to be favored not only among newly-born startups, freelancers, and entrepreneurs, but also among larger companies. This is because many major corporations are recognizing the benefits of using shared offices, such as working with a range of smaller teams side by side.
There’s also a tendency in the flexible office industry to create coworking spaces focused on specific fields. It makes sense in terms of attracting the right people and getting them on board with a certain industry culture. The point of this model is to boost creative thinking and urge the atmosphere of true collaboration, aiming to increase productivity for all employees.
Large corporations today like to have a mixture of “core” offices, which they own or lease long-term, and “flexible” offices that they rent in co-working spaces as and when it’s necessary. This allows them to remain agile, to reorganize teams for every new project, and to minimize costs.
Wellness
Wellness in the workplace is no longer optional. It’s hard to expect your employees to work well when you are not taking care of them. Over the past few years, biophilic design has been one of the biggest trends in workplace design, and it’s still going strong into 2020.
The goal of biophilic design is to make indoor spaces feel more natural by including natural elements in the design, creating benefits such as improved productivity, reduced stress, and improved creative thinking.
Retro Influences
A lot of inspiration can be drawn from trends of the past to form certain combinations, which is known as the Old meets New style. As more companies set up offices in older buildings and buildings that have been repurposed, they’re often eager to embrace the unique character and history those buildings have to offer. The clean lines of Mid-Century Modern-inspired furniture are very much in style right now, but some other ideas for this trend include designing with vintage-inspired color palettes, including pieces made of repurposed materials, or mixing antiques with modern pieces.
