Our workplaces have always reflected our changing society. Consider Mad Men, the acclaimed US TV drama series, set in a New York advertising agency in the 1960s. The executive offices and drinks cabinets which are a constant throughout the series convey the general values of the era. And the evolution of the workplace design across the series reflects the changing attitudes of the sixties – as the repetitive grey cubicles and typing pools of the early series (and early sixties) make way for more open plan working and the introduction of computers, we get a sense of both the agency’s progress, and wider society’s progress. The world of work has gone through some even bigger changes since the era of Mad Men, particularly during the last two decades. The “job for life” is vanishing. The “gig economy” − a labour market characterised by short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs – is growing. Technologies such as broadband and communication and collaboration software such as Skype, Zoom, Slack and Trello have made it easier to work flexibly outside the traditional nine-to-five work schedule.  More employees are working remotely, from home, cafés or co-working spaces. How have these trends been changing the function, and look and feel of our workplaces?

More remote and flexible work patterns have given people an experience of working in diverse places. And workplace design is evolving to reflect the best of those.  Most workplaces are shifting away from traditional office cubicles and overhead strip lighting, to a more informal set-up and style. Spaces for collaboration and informal meetings – such as café areas – are giving people places to get away from the desk and work somewhere more relaxed. The look and feel is also following suit. Think softer, more comfortable settings, as you may find in a café, hotel, or a co-working space.

Clients increasingly ask their architects for a “co-working” style space. But companies should be clear about what elements of a co-working space they are actually looking for, and whether it suits their culture. Is it the flexibility of lease that co-working contracts allow?  Are they interested in sharing a floor with start-ups, entrepreneurs and other business, as a way to mix with new people and share ideas?  Or is it more about the look and feel? Are they after the stereotypical sofas, touchdown benches and beer? And if it’s the latter, they need to ask whether that would suit their corporate culture.

Design matters. Getting a space right for business brand and the culture can also dramatically help improve business performance.  Boden, an online UK fashion company, was based in a large sixties office block when they approached us to help find them a new building.  The existing building’s design separated staff across multiple floors, discouraging the informal in-person chats that can improve teamwork and an organisation’s performance. However, when we found a large warehouse at the back of their existing building, we recommended knocking through to it, to create one large open-plan office, with all the floors connected through a huge central atrium.  We also recommended they adopt much more flexible working, with nobody having their own desk.  The aim was to encourage more movement and connectivity, and to increase face-to-face collaboration across the business. The new building design has completely shifted Boden’s way of working.  Email traffic sent between Boden workers has decreased by 50% because people talk in person, rather than via email. Another Spacelab customer, Iris, an international marketing and PR agency, wanted its London office to be less of a “rabbit warren” and to encourage more innovative thinking and collaboration between people. The new office is on one, open plan floor, where everyone can see each other, and find each other easily.  There is a real sense of ‘buzz’, with teams working collaboratively across the space, in different zones from open sofa areas to semi-enclosed project ‘cubes’. The space drives innovation, in line with the agency’s ethos “For the forward”.

The coronavirus has led to a huge increase in home working – part of an effort to slow contagion of the global pandemic. It’s very likely this will result in a long-term change to how and where we work. Even when more of us return to the office, many of us will not do so five days a week. Before the pandemic, our data showed that typically just 67% of the workforce were in the office at any point.  With more people working from home for more of the time, this figure will be even lower. So businesses have the opportunity to rethink their workplaces, and what they need to provide for their people when they do come in – the spaces and work points that enable people to do all the things that they cannot do remotely, or without their colleagues. 

What will workplaces look like in 10 years? What societal changes will they reflect? Remote working will become a longer-term reality for many of us, further fuelled by new technologies. But don’t write off the office just yet.  The unplanned interactions you get in person can be so much more valuable than a rigidly scheduled conference call. The quality of a face-to-face chat can be so much more meaningful than one done over the phone. Physical space will arguably become even more important as we carry out much more of our work online. With the rise of remote working, companies should look to ensure their buildings can truly encourage and enable collaboration when workers do meet face to face.