During the last year, people were forced to radically change their daily life and adapt to a new reality. The way we communicate, we live, we work, we spend our free time, had to be re-considered and sometimes re-invented.
An important sector of this change was that people needed to stay away from their working environment and work remotely from home instead. This change seemed efficient for some companies which had to start re-thinking whether the old workplace should exist or if it should be re-interpreted on the base of a new flexible working model.
During the last months, many surveys have taken place in different parts of the world, from Europe to Australia about whether employees want to return to their offices, continue working from home or adopt a hybrid model of flexibility between office work and remote one.
According to them, the most popular option was a hybrid flexible scenario involving both working from their office space and from home or another space, if needed. This scenario is not only hypothetical as there are already many companies which are experimenting or applying this new model on their business workflow.
A topic that emerges due to the previous analysis is whether should a small or mid-size company start considering applying this hybrid model of ‘’office + elsewhere’’ working and how should the design of the workplace adapt to it, in order to enhance the performance of the employees and give a meaning on their day working from office.
Since 2019, MID Team has started thinking about new strategies on the design of workplaces which will adapt to a changing world, in which technology tends to take the place of humans or gives them the opportunity to select its own workplace using a shared network and their computer.
Dealing with the Axel Springer New Headquarters Project, MID proposed a building which will consist of volumes, hosting different departments of the Company. The concept was based on the need for communication among employees, reducing the total area of the traditional working stations and giving more space to common areas. Each volume has on its core an agora, either interior or exterior, which is the place where employees can meet, gather, socialize, exchange ideas, focusing on a more open working experience.
The future office can become a place which will give the opportunity for employees to socialize, evolving more into a modern hub rather than a traditional working space. The design of the offices should adapt to this idea by putting the communication on the center of its interest. The orientation of the working stations, the fluidity of the space without permanent vertical obstacles, the flexibility of the furniture which adapt to the changes between teams, the design of more meeting areas, rest areas or playgrounds are some examples of how should the workplace of the future be like.
Such strategies where applied by MID, in a recent competition, winning a Gold Mention and on other interior design projects of mid-size companies in Greece.
Open spaces, multipurpose areas and playgrounds where people will be able to meet and communicate would give to the office space a new meaning. Due to similar surveys, employees do not lose their efficiency when the work from home. As far as the workplace is good, employees will perform good, no matter whether they work at home or in the office. Despite that, people need to feel socially integrated, need to communicate and exchange ideas. Connection between employees and social integration are two major parameters which affect the psychology of an employee and therefore his performance at work.
Consequently, companies should re-consider the necessity of a well-designed workplace which will be able to adapt to the new hybrid working model, introducing itself as a place where employees will meet, communicate their ideas and thoughts, and collaborate rather than work privately on their working station which can be their home or a library, instead.
People have the potential to see critically a crisis and understand whether a model they were using on the past can still work or they need to re-think it. Architecture and design can help on this issue, by addressing solutions to the modern problems, adapting to the emerging needs. MID, such as many other architects and bureaus work on that direction, throughout researches, competitions and private projects are introducing a new perspective on how can the future workplace can look like, changing our future life.
Info about Surveys:
Hassell | The workplace beyond 2020 (hassellstudio.com)
Reference Projects: