Office spaces are often misunderstood as spaces that are designed for peak productivity. However, this isn’t the reality. Instead, these spaces have always been places of compromise. Instead of creating a finely tuned environment for specialized work, office designs are made in a way that they are only focused on accommodating the required needs with minimum friction.
Let’s talk about the cubicle design that was introduced in the middle of the 20th century. No doubt, the cubicle had the ability to effectively and efficiently manage a large number of workers while also facilitating mass production and hierarchical control. However, no aspect of it was concerned with fostering creativity or letting the employees practice deep focus. Also, privacy and routine were the two main pillars of the cubicle, which helped prioritize conformity but completely ignored the concept of innovation and connection.
As the work culture evolved, collaboration and transparency were given a lot of priority. The concept of an open office then emerged as an icebreaker, leading to an incredible evolution in workspaces. It significantly helped break down the potential barriers of the cubicle and foster a dynamic and creative work culture. However, you will be surprised to know that even this design was a compromise. Although it promoted the concept of innovation and creativity, it was always concerned about the cost and space utilized. Employees were constantly facing a lot of problems, including noise, distractions, delays in targets, lack of privacy, etc. Hence, it was concluded that open spaces were not facilitating the collaboration that they were supposed to encourage.
Shifting towards the extremes!
The middle ground is being increasingly abandoned as the societal trends are constantly pushing us towards the extremes. And due to the dominating nature of polarized positions, this shift is clearly evident. Mainly after the COVID-19 pandemic, our focus has completely shifted towards the extremes. Well, this is because everything wishes to seek our attention by presenting itself as a high risk moment. In this case, there is no chance that anything normal is going to succeed. Instead, hyper is the new normal at present.
In the present scenario, there is hardly any difference between work and the workspace. Apart from the nature of work, the demands placed on the office have also evolved. Any standardized, traditional office environment is considered to be inadequate for satisfying the diverse and specialized needs of modern employees. The rise of remote work, technological advances, and changing work habits and requirements that emphasize flexibility and efficiency are the key factors driving these trends.
Discovering The Two Main Trends Shaping That Are The Future Of Space Design!
1. Hyper focus
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing became very clear. People are more productive and can practice efficiency when working in personalized spaces at home that do not offer any interruptions or distractions. This gave birth to a new concept called ‘hyper focus’, also referred to as ‘deep work’ by Cal Newport, an American author.
The concept of hyper focus mainly emphasizes one thing. As work is becoming extremely complex, employees should be provided with environments that not only possess minimal distractions but also support intense concentration. This further led to the development of various retail design solutions that included work libraries, quiet zones, focus pods, and other noise cancellation measures. All these solutions were focused on creating spaces ideal for high attention and focused work.
Also, it was agreed that new innovations and creative office spaces were not only concerned with the comfort of the employees. Instead, they are more focused on developing spaces that increase the overall efficiency and effectiveness of employees and help them climb up to their maximum productivity level while meeting all their modern work demands.
The Edge: A live example of an office with several hyper focus spaces!
The Edge by Deloitte, Amsterdam, is a perfect example that adequately explains how advanced technology can facilitate deep work by providing hyper personalized environments to the employees. Factors like lighting, temperature, and air quality are continuously monitored and adjusted in order to develop an optimal environment that is suitable for the needs of different individuals. Doing this ensures that employees come across no interruptions and can perfectly concentrate on their work.
On the other hand, the overall retail design of the entire office significantly enhances the focusing power of modern workers by offering them specialized and personalized workspaces that minimize distractions and adequately support deep concentration. Employees at The Edge are free to choose the most suitable space within the office that will enhance their concentration power by letting them work uninterruptedly.
2. Hyper collaboration
On the opposite of the hyper focus spectrum is the trend toward hyper-collaboration. We are all aware of the fact that the work requirements are constantly evolving. Instead of just doing the same work each day, employees are now picking up project based and interdisciplinary work. Considering this scenario, it is mandatory to collaborate with others intensively.
The concept of hyper collaboration is concerned with bringing diverse teams together in order to encourage them to exchange, test, and redefine their ideas in those tech enhanced environments.
Also, hyper collaboration is focused on enabling seamless and collaborative teamwork irrespective of the physical locations of employees. Due to this, advanced communication tools, immersive technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), and different real time collaboration software are being considered the central aspects of this trend.
D’Art Design: A live example of an office with several hyper collaborative spaces!
D’Art Design, India, a retail marketing & branding agency, is a perfect example of how the presence of collaborative spaces inside the office can facilitate seamless collaboration and exchange of ideas between the employees. With various dedicated collaboration spaces inside the premises, employees are free to express their thoughts and further collaborate them with the ideas of other colleagues, in order to achieve desirable results. Diverse teams can freely have discussions and practice healthy argument sessions in those hyper collaborative spaces without causing any interruption or disturbance to other employees.
Also, the overall design of D’Art significantly encourages the employees to collaborate with each other rather than just working on a single thought. There are dedicated discussion/collaborative areas for every individual department that possesses all the amenities required to connect, irrespective of whether the person is present in the office or not. Employees can freely utilize the spaces to team up with their colleagues and further innovate new brand strategies and solutions.
Winding up
Companies that opt for retail rollout services are now paying adequate attention to these extremes while getting their office spaces designed. Considering these needs, retail design agencies are also focused on developing specialized spaces that promote the hyper focus and well as the hyper collaboration concept. This new start is basically the end of one size fits all approach as it pays more attention to recognising the demands of modern employees and providing them with a work environment that perfectly meets all their needs.
Moving forward in the era of extremes calls for the continuous evolution of office spaces. Companies and workplaces will soon get converted into spaces that will adequately meet the growing demands and expectations of contemporary work. This is because the office is no longer a place where people just come to work. Instead, it has now become a specialized environment that is optimized in a way that promotes both deep focus and intense collaboration as well. Office spaces, at present, are concerned with driving productivity while also letting employees flex their brain muscles and come up with creative, innovative, and unique ideas in this fast-paced, technology-driven world.
