After the pandemic, we will come back (or not) to new offices, with adjusted basic ideas for the 6-feet working space. The standard safe distance is likely to be imprinted in designers' and users' minds for a long time. It is vital to bring sustainable, resilient and flexible solutions to modify space quickly and safely. We hypothesize on future scenarios.
By Kate Turbina, Contributor
YOUR OFFICE IS YOUR SHOWROOM
When most of the employees work remotely, and your main goal is to work with clients, the office acts as a venue for meetings with customers and employees. It is crucial to make the right impression. Space can be compact but must be 100% WIP.
The office becomes a very comfortable space for communication. As an example, it can be compared with hotel lobby areas or business lounges at airports. The space for working-remotely employees is not required. These areas become showrooms or simply excluded from the lease.
The atmosphere tends from the office to the lounge aesthetics. This space plays an intermediate role being between the favorite cafe and the house. It is packed with all the necessary equipment for work. An impressive welcome lounge, rational zoning of the space, custom-made solutions, creativity in welcome areas gain extra value.
MOBILE POP-UP AND DANCING SOLUTIONS
Only flexible and decisive companies will survive by embracing bravely the presence and the future. An upgraded vector is a custom-made design. This is a new challenge for designers and local contractors. Following the fact that bringing foreign brands will be temporarily quite tricky and expensive, it is critical to design all the items individually and locally.
"The company's flexibility and limited budget generate more mobile and cost-saving solutions in design. That matters for emerging companies and startups operating in the face of uncertainty."
Workspaces will be developed rationally and pragmatically, with attention to the working processes and the team structure. The next layer is the furniture that can be applied to any space since it is placed independently of partitions and ceilings.
This option will be a kind of a Pop-Up office, which includes an individually selected furniture, basic repair, mobile partitions and required equipment. For founders, it will only be needed to choose the appropriate premises. The supplier company can provide furniture, or architects can develop the working space's style as a look. This option could work best for the possible relocation.
POST-APOCALYPTIC MINIMALISM AND CHIC
Creativity will be appropriate in welcome areas, such as a reception, a cafe, a lounge. These spaces should be developed based on the aesthetics of the brand. This is a new round in design, which will entail a more immersive storytelling and will allow the brands to create profound, thoughtful projects with a unique idea.
"Nowadays, being an architect is less about knowing how to build a space and draw up a budget, but it is also about the lifestyle, economics and dynamic of changes into daily scenarios. Architects create spaces where people can live, not exist, work, not toil, walk, not move."
The design concept can be developed not for a particular space, but individually for the brand. Pop-up solutions can be applied at various sites. The challenge is not to create an office for companies, but to create a working environment reflected the brand's principles and values.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kate Turbina has years of experience in the architectural design process, utilizing user-centered and eco-friendly principles of sustainable design management and development. cover image credit: @studio_swine