We’ve seen it in countless movies; the determined underdog staring up at a limitless skyscraper dreaming of fortune. Glass edifices epitomising ambition and wealth; the use of buildings to represent hopes and dreams is a well flogged metaphor. 

 

Before the financial crash in 2008, the common perception of corporate success was made manifest in tall, muscular towers from New York to Shanghai. Endless office floors packed out with executives who had one thing in common; the pursuit of wealth. In Gordon Gekko’s words, greed was good...and commercial architecture followed suit. 

 

Then, following the calamity of 2008, perceptions started to shift. Rather than organisations evoking power and excess, the glass towers they occupied suddenly became symbols of irresponsibility and mismanagement. The warped values of Wall Street had become toxic; suddenly no one wanted to associate themselves with corporate muscle. Nostalgia quickly replaced bravado as companies looked to distance themselves from the crowd. Column-free space was out, exposed brick was in. Companies wanted to portray an aura of authenticity and honesty. Enter the warehouse in the scruffy part of town - what better device to change people’s perceptions and draw the best recruits. 

 

These days artisan coffee may have replaced the Cosmopolitan, but the power of architecture to echo the brand identity of companies large or small has remained as powerful as ever. Be it sustainability, creativity or plain greed, the philosophies that companies want to portray reverberate in the very buildings they occupy.  

 

So despite the likes of Twitter telling their employees they can work from home ‘forever’, it’s unlikely that we will take kindly to working (in perpetuity) from our kitchen tables in a post Covid world, in the same way that we never took to working in coffee shops following the onslaught of smartphones and tablets.  

 

Buildings, and the offices within them also give work its true meaning. Without a group of people churning away in the same place, at the same time, on the same thing, it’s inconceivable as to how a business can create any sort of culture. They give us routine and purpose; a place of solitude, amusement and even romance.  They act as a psychological barrier between home and the outside world. If anything they justify our wardrobes. There are few places that offer so many of life’s simple pleasures. 

 

As automation wipes out jobs that were once the mainstay of the working class; jobs that were predictable and repetitive (5G will make this phenomenon more acute), we must nurture the type of work that machines cannot do. Jobs that require abstract thought, critical thinking and innovation. Buildings and offices will foster an environment that cultivates these things. 

 

There will be an obvious post-Covid reaction to reduce overheads and slash real estate portfolios. Many are insinuating doing just that. We will do well to resist the urge. If a company is truly interested in bettering itself, it will do all it can to keep people together.  

 

Twitter et al. take note!