but a growing field of research suggests the most resilient offices will be able to balance the need for human connection and physical distance with flexibility, variety and a focus on holistic well-being.
that provide sound dampening and textures will gain importance in post-pandemic offices. It also emphasizes the importance of the workplace delivering a cultural hub that gives people a “meaningful place to come together and facilitates connections with a sense of purpose, freedom and fulfillment.”
“Workers say they are experiencing an increased amount of virtual fatigue, or burn-out, and are increasingly wanting to get back to the office,” reads the latest Worker Preferences Barometer report by real estate services firm JLL. “This suggests offices will be more important now than ever before as the centre of the work ecosystem and that outstanding office environments will remain a critical way to engage employees.”
While a human-centred approach might help companies attract and retain talent in a post-pandemic world, flexibility can help them sail through a period of compromise, expansion and contraction following the reopening of offices.
JLL surveyed 3,300 office workers around the world 15 months into the pandemic and found 61 per cent crave “real” human interactions. While most workers want to return to the office at least part-time, JLL’s research also found that the less people liked their offices before the pandemic, the less enthusiastic they are about returning. Nostalgia for the office is highest among people who reported a high level of satisfaction with the office before the pandemic, and lowest in those who reported low levels of satisfaction. About 45 per cent of the workforce feel disenchanted and have low expectations of their employers.
Throughout November and December 2020, professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) surveyed 133 executives and 1,200 office workers in the United States on their post-pandemic work arrangement preferences and found most companies are heading toward hybrid work-from-home arrangements with little or no consensus between employers and employees on the balance of remote and on-site days. As companies work out arrangements that suit everyone, demand for spaces like meeting rooms, common areas and assigned workstations will change. Additionally, PWC’s survey found real estate portfolios are in transition, with 56 per cent of executives expecting to need more space over the next three years.
People surveyed pre-pandemic ranked working in a company that ensured their health and well-being fifth on a list of six workforce priorities. People surveyed in March 2021 ranked it third, behind work-life balance and salary. “The imperative is clear: the office of the future will have to be human-centered, putting health and well-being at the forefront,” the JLL report reads. “This will benefit both employers and employees, through boosting organizational performance while offering highly attractive workplaces to key talent.”
So how can design professionals help offices flex with the changing priorities of workers and employees in a post-pandemic world? For one thing, PWC suggests offices embrace quality technology to support the remote workforce. “Companies that may have been slow to adopt technologies that support remote work…are playing catch-up,” the PWC report reads. “Optimizing the hybrid workplace requires accelerating investments to support virtual collaboration and creativity, as well as for scheduling and safety.”
As for the relationship between workplace design and employee wellbeing, Dr. Allan Hamilton offered some insight during a panel as part of the IDC Virtual Design Symposium in October 2020. He’s not an interior designer, but as an MD and professor of neurosurgery at the University of Arizona, Hamilton understands how the human brain handles stress. He argued humans experience existential crises when we violate our nature, which is to be altruistic, compassionate and empathetic.
In The Case for a Thriving Workplace, Knoll champions scalable, modular spaces that are easier to reconfigure or relocate than those made of plaster and studs. “If the year 2020 taught us anything, it is that you cannot predict the future. However, organizations can prepare for it by being nimble and ready to adapt at a moment’s notice,” the report reads. “The same can be said for physical space. Today’s workplaces need to be agile, resilient and easily adaptable over time.”
“We get thrown into imbalance, and when we lose that connection with nature, we become perpetually anxious and stressed,” said Hamilton. Built spaces that promote biophilia — the innate human instinct to connect with nature and other living beings — and support social well-being and safety can help restore balance and ease anxiety. A fundamental shift that workplaces should embrace is from density-driven design to more communal, shared environments. “Being more inclusive, more diverse and looking at group identity tends to being a better equation both for architecture and for the peace of mind of the human brain,” says Hamilton.
Some companies will have the resources to experiment with all these solutions, but most clients and designers are bound by physical and financial constraints that will determine which they can adopt and which they can’t. In Canada, two workspaces at opposite ends of the continent are welcoming employees back to brand new offices built during the pandemic. Here are the features they have prioritized.
Contract furniture powerhouse Knoll wanted to know what qualities will make for resilient post-pandemic workplaces and came to the same conclusions as Hamilton after conducting more than 20 panel discussions, 30 roundtables and a survey of 81 workplaces across North America. “Psychological safety will be an important element at play,” the firm predicts in its report, The Case for a Thriving Workplace. “We’re considering how to design space that provides solutions for unknown levels of psychological safety.” The report predicts design elements such as landmarks to assist in wayfinding, wide circulation paths, visual transparency and materials CANADIAN INTERIORS 9/10 2021
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Last fall, French hospitality company Sodexo welcomed employees to its new office in an historic industrial building in Montréal. L’Abri and Vives St-Laurent, two firms based in Montréal, designed the turnkey project in early winter of 2020 and began construction that spring. L’Abri project lead Nicolas Lapierre said that when the pandemic temporarily shut the jobsite down a week into construction, the team discussed changing the design with Sodexo, but they ultimately stuck with the plan. Fortunately, the concept has risen to the
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