It was fascinating to hear different perspectives on the future of workplace, and the futureproofing of offices, as flexible working is now ingrained in our daily lives. Our own experiences across office retrofits, fit outs and new builds were reflected in the four main themes discussed in the webinar: 

 

 

Riding the wave of encouraging employees back into the office, we have seen a widespread reassessment of the quantity of real estate devoted to workplace, alongside the quality required for employees to operate at their best. Many companies are not necessarily looking to downsize but they may be looking to ‘right-size’. This often means that space devoted to conventional office is rationalised and made to work more effectively, thereby releasing valuable real estate. 

 

LOM experienced this with on-site design changes to Santander UK’s new corporate headquarters Unity Place, which had to be adapted following the events of pandemic to reflect modern, hybrid working arrangements. This mixed-use campus blends public and private, and has been designed to support collaboration, productivity and wellbeing to help retain and attract the best talent – establishing social value with the local community and economy, while introducing improved operational and environmental efficiency. 

 

It is in the release of real estate that true quality emerges. New, exceptional ancillary facilities can be devoted to wellness and choice in the workplace, improving on accessibility, neurodiversity, inclusivity and sustainability requirements. As such, right-sizing becomes a tool for Social Value. 

 

Blurred boundaries can create community hubs or zones for cross-businesses collaboration and networking in multitenant buildings. The presence of education facilities within office-dense areas is seen as favourable and can be harnessed to create mutually beneficial conditions for learning, research and retention of talent in local communities and the creation of ecosystems. 
 
High-quality office space is now an expectation of employees, as it expresses the quality and value they contribute with their work. Increasingly, employers will be evaluated on perks, both physical: health, wellness, food choice, inclusion, spaces for cross fertilisation and collaboration, and practical for a work-life balance: flexibility, contributions towards commute, cycle to work schemes, and discounts. 
 
This begins with an acknowledgement of employees’ intersectionality, their unique voices, backgrounds and realities should be represented in the spaces and as part of the office culture. Designers and businesses at large should question the rules by which we have been designing offices, challenging the metrics applied to understand how much of our current standards are rooted in gender, ability, ethnicity and age notions that no longer apply to a modern and diverse workforce. All new office designs should start with extensive engagement of stakeholder and steering groups to ensure workplace becomes representative of the culture of the people that inhabit it. 
 

It’s exciting to see how the choices made by employers to activate their offices will start to permeate at an urban and master planning scale, creating more fluid boundaries between workplace and public realm, reactivating street frontages, reaching out to communities and building vibrancy, connections and diversity back into our places of work.