For all the talk a few years ago about the benefits of open offices--they facilitate collaboration and communication and make everyone equal, for example--some people are now backtracking. It turns out not everyone is thrilled with open offices because of the noise, the distractions, and the germs. Open offices may not be all they were billed to be, but does that mean organizations should go back to the more traditional, closed offices?

There's no real answer to this question because the debate often focuses solely on the physical office space. But an office by itself is just architecture and a building. What really makes the difference is the people and the environment of the office. Open offices are thought to be more forward thinking, but just because a company switches to an open office doesn't automatically make it a modern, future-proof organization. Likewise, an organization working in a closed office space isn't automatically traditional and stodgy. An office is merely the bones of the company that must be supported with the right culture and environment.

Via inc.com >

Coworking is all the rage—though the trend doesn’t come without its issues and challenges. By and large, coworking spaces are airy, open spaces with plenty of square footage and a sleek, glassy look common in new workplace designs. An outlier: This compact, solar-powered, 7-square-meter (about 75 square feet) mobile coworking space by German firm Guerilla Architects, which, if the photos are any indication, seats a maximum of two workers.

Via curbed.com >

The way people communicate, work, shop, travel and think has changed dramatically as technology advances and becomes more widely adopted.

In addition, new working patterns and company structures are placing fresh demands on a workplaces’ ability to support flexibility and collaboration. Corporates today want to know that a building can improve and maximize employee wellbeing as well as enhance productivity and foster innovation.

As more process-driven elements of work fall to artificial intelligence, the companies of the future will be leaner and more dispersed. Many companies will need less space than in the past, owing to increasing efficiencies and maybe fewer numbers of permanent staff. Smaller firms, meanwhile, may only ever need a co-working space. In between these extremes is a need for more flexible collaboration space to satisfy the changing requirements of both corporates and start-ups.

As real estate enters a new data-defined era, driven by employees’ changing requirements, the workplace must respond rapidly. To find out how you could work tomorrow, take a look at the video.

Via jllrealviews.stfi.re >

The office as we know it is shrinking. Square footage allotment per employee has been on a steady decline year after year. With this comes smaller worksurfaces, employees working in closer proximity and a trend towards more open plan office environments. Needless to say, a reduction in square footage has a number of implications for employees and their work environments. 1.) Employee privacy is reduced 2.) Individual workstation square footage decreases 3.) Personal storage is limited 4.) Noise levels increase and 5.) Some may argue productivity suffers as a result of these affects.

There’s no indication that this trend will reverse itself anytime soon so organizations must get creative when planning environments for employees that align with space limitations but also accommodate their employees’ work styles. At KI, we believe Active Design not only addresses these issues but also encourages healthy, productive activity throughout the work day.

Via ki.com >

Traditionally, workplace design has prioritized building infrastructure and physical environment over the space’s inhabitants – the employees. Now, as employers shift the workplace experience in order to retain talent and adapt to workers’ changing needs, office design is becoming more human-centered. In this month’s news aggregate, we explore the humanization of the workplace and the implications of this trend for today’s workers.

Via coalesse.com >

Over the last few years, the media has been weighing in on workplace design trends with articles like “The Open-Office Concept Is Dead” (Fortune magazine) and op-eds like “Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace” (Washington Post). Unless you’ve been living under a rock, then you know these authors who may not be as embedded in our industry aren’t necessarily wrong: Research conducted and presented by office furniture manufacturers and major design firms like Gensler has suggested that open plans can actually impede productivity and employee well-being but they also point to possible solutions such as hybrid offices, where there’s compromise between open-office plans, casual lounge areas and privacy zones.

Via architizer.com >

Being a full-time employee myself I can completely comprehend with the importance of having breakout spaces in the workplace. Sometimes however, even when there is a breakout space for staff it may not actually get used simply because it’s not designed in a smart way.

I recently stumbled across a fantastic article on the http://blog.millikencarpet.com/ website that discusses this notion further. In my opinion, the type of furniture you use, the colour scheme & lighting are immensely important to get right.

Via calibre-furniture.co.uk >

It sounds more like a day spa than an office: a mile of walking trails, a cafeteria serving locally grown food, views of nature from almost every room in the building – including the stairwells – and a wood-paneled lobby designed to absorb excess sound.

Welcome to French manufacturing giant Saint-Gobain’s North American headquarters. Since moving into the Malvern, Pennsylvania building in October last year, Saint-Gobain has kept notes on the effect of these features on its employees, and compared it to its previous office seven miles down the road.

Via theguardian.com >