What is the future of of Office Design?
I this blog I will explore the future of office design and how I feel it may change.
Why this subject? I spent a few years in office design and there is a very close relationship with technology.
As we spend more and more time on mobile devices. Probably Laptop, Tablet and Mobile right?
These are all portable devices and means people can work from anywhere with an internet connection in most cases.
The majority of applications we use are cloud based. In fact I cannot really think of any that are server based any longer?
So with applications being cloud based and our devices are all portable, what does this mean for the traditional office?
In the short term nothing to be honest. We see some enterprises moving to an Activity Based Working model, but for small business this is quite a leap of faith.
So what is the future of office design for small businesses in the short term?
I wonder if we will see less desk ownership and more hot desks? There is going to be far less requirements for desk space. If we also consider the massive increase in requests for flexible working, there will be far more home workers than in previous years.
This all of course requires a different mindset from business leaders but that is a whole blog in itself.
So back to office design. We are seeing more home like comforts increasing and also things like pool tables and table tennis.
Open offices were all the rage ten years ago but in reality did not work for everyone. What I do see is more break out areas and smaller meeting areas, stand up meetings are common too.
The desktop PC is becoming less of a fixture and server rooms are slowly disappearing. I can see the office becoming more of a hub of small meeting rooms and areas to touch down and work for the time you are there. Bring your own device (BYOD) was talked about lots and although I have not seen much evidence in smaller businesses I do see far more tablets and mobiles phones.
As a result the wifi gets hammered with sometimes up to three devices per person all on the wifi. Traditional cabling I think will become less important but not disappear completely.
I do think its time to start looking at home office space is used in small business. It is not cheap and maybe not being used in the most cost effective manner. I also think people should start thinking about anywhere working and losing the light of sight leadership mentality. Smaller more agile companies will get created and the ability to pivot fast is a massive competitive advantage.
If you think how Kodak employed around 55,000 people before they went bust and their replacement Instagram at the time of purchase employed around 55 people.
Agile, mobile and flexible are the words that will shape the future of office design in the next few years is my predication. What do you think?
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Author- Speaker - Consultant. Passionate about all things digital.