Member Article

Work spaces trends

Work is no longer 9-5 which means our office environment shouldn’t just be a functional space that serves the outdated working life hours.

We are working earlier, longer and later into life, therefore modern workplaces need to respond by providing environments that satisfy the employee’s life outside of traditional office hours. Employers also need to create work spaces that keep employees at work for longer and allow them to do their ‘life admin’ in the comfort of their own office, and no longer in the comfort of their own home.

Increasingly, we are seeing corporate clients asking for unusual office spaces which feature lifestyle items such as:

1. Onsite gyms
2. Fun zones with slides and climbing walls
3. ’Chill’ or lounge areas with sofas and TVs
4. Breakfast stations
5. Wellbeing rooms including space for masseuse tables and yoga classes
6. Bars serving more than just drinks, but the pub experience including snooker tables and foosball

According to recruitment site Adzuna, some of the coolest offices in London belong to business suppliers Moo, travel website AirBnB, advertising agency Mother and online food company Hello Fresh*. Each office satisfies their staff’s lifestyle in some capacity which is going to have a positive impact on productivity. One office even includes a mindfulness room to demonstrate its commitment to team wellbeing and to build a company loyalty like no other.

We have always been impressed by the design standards at Lego and that the offices wholly represent the brand’s inspiration ethos. With chill out zones, snugs and innovative working pods, Lego delivers on a comfortable work environment which will prevent employees clock watching and being desperate to head home to a more chilled and relaxing space.

The rise in popularity of quirky rented co working spaces such as We Work proves that the traditional office space with the chair, desk, and water cooler is fading. We Work offers on site bars and organic food stations, with the co-working space looking more like something from a country estate living room than an office. Corporations and SMEs with office space need to sit up, listen and respond to the change in demand for lifestyle enhancing spaces or risk losing staff to more attractive working environments and perks.

We have been designing indoor assault courses for Bear Grylls who has teamed up with Oxygen Freejumping. Sites across the country provide multi storey training zones for people to train their body for OCR events in creative ways. We created a look and design that was based on the Bear Grylls Epic training brand – functional, with simple colours and a big impact. The focus being on the fitness not the frills, with an orange logo set against an all-black structure with pops of orange and natural rope to echo the brand.

Having completed the first couple of courses, we have been requested similar facilities in large corporate offices to provide fitness for employees and to drive well-being at work and job satisfaction.

But you don’t need big budgets, extra space or whole new offices to respond to this trend. We have recommended many cost-effective solutions to clients including the simplicity of adding a pop of colour to interiors, replacing standard tables with picnic tables, creating feature walls or installing dramatic bookcases.

The industrial aesthetic is still on trend, and is affordable because it celebrates exposed services and raw materials which are economical such as plywood, chipboard or exposed concrete. Focusing on finishing these materials well can allow a large space to be renovated at a low price. We also recommend break out spaces with a coffee bar which could be used as the lunch area, entertaining clients or for holding events. Another important element is movable furniture which can be rearranged depending on the use of space and to rejuvenate the working environment quickly and easily.

The opportunities are endless and we will work with your office space and budget to create the space you need to meet the new lifestyle demand. If you want to start a chat about the options available, email Jon on jon@adventureinarchitecture.co.uk for Adventure In Architecture’s interior design and architecture ideas and recommendations.

Sources

*https://www.adzuna.co.uk/blog/2016/10/03/coolest-offices-2016-edition-london-vs-the-rest-of-the-uk/

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by JON BESWICK .