4 Ways Office Spaces Are Evolving in a Hybrid Working World

The consensus is that hybrid work is the new normal. Architects and interior designers now have more clarity of the status quo, understanding the need for better workspaces. We dive into how office spaces have evolved since the pandemic.

1. Experiential Design

Many companies take advantage of cheaper rents to upsize and reimagine their workspaces. More and more businesses accept that forcing staff to return to work is difficult and many turn to experiential office design to achieve this goal.

These offices have well-thought-out features focusing on well-being. They can include gyms, yoga studios, meditation rooms, cafeterias, and cozy, ergonomic furniture. They may even provide space for child and pet care to appease their staff.

Experiential design also encourages employees to collaborate, hone their talents and acquire new skills, going beyond traditional work tasks.

2. Shared Desks

Dedicated offices — workspaces with desks assigned to employees — are falling out of favor. More people telecommute, so less furniture is in order. Hybrid offices are promoting desk sharing as a result.

Hot desking and office hoteling, which have pros and cons, are concepts businesses use to determine who gets which table. The former is an arrangement where a person reserves a workspace for as little as an hour to a whole day, whereas the latter allows an employee to book a desk for a more extended period.

3. Resimercial Design

Another emerging office design trend is "resimercial" — a cross between residential and commercial. Coziness, ambient lighting, space flexibility, furniture upholstery and homely accessories are some of its principles.

More than 25% of telecommuters say they want to return to full-time office work, while 39% indicated that they would consider leaving their job if they were forced to return. Resimercial design could potentially convince more employees to return to the office.

4. Flexibility

Employers yearn for flexible spaces to allow them to make changes and scale the work area as they see fit. Movable walls and collapsible furniture allowing for quick interior design makeovers are flexible hybrid office must-haves.

Companies are beginning to contemplate whether to have a dedicated workspace at all. Some startups realize that a physical space is more for socialization and less for office work. These organizations allow their employees to work from anywhere 100% and schedule occasional informal meetups or large-scale company retreats so their team members can get to know one another.

Such a radical mindset shift crushes demand for traditional office space and opens new opportunities for other types of commercial real estate. Players in the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions tourism sector stand to benefit from this trend.

Recalibrate Your Mindset to Design Hybrid Workspaces

Hybrid work is here to stay. Although office and retail spaces will never be the same, they will still stick around, but just in new forms. You can design tomorrow's workspaces if you draw inspiration from these trends.