While 70% of U.S. offices now offer open workspace, studies show employees still prefer the quiet of private offices, and landlords are taking the cue.
A recent study conducted by CommercialCafé found that more than 60% of 2,107 full-time employees between the ages 22 and 40 prefer to work in a private or home office.
While one-size-fits-all, open-plan layouts have ruled office designs in recent years, developers are responding to employee sentiments in favor of closed offices by embracing some of the sector's more traditional roots. The trend now gaining traction has been dubbed “activity-based workplace design," which prioritizes both flexibility and privacy.
Studio Fōr founding principal Fauzia Khanani said her firm is already designing offices with dedicated quiet spaces and phone rooms for clients. Many are even opting to sacrifice bigger conference rooms to gain a larger number of small breakout rooms instead.
“The industry as a whole is adjusting to accommodate these desires, especially in existing office spaces. Free-standing breakout spaces that accommodate anywhere from one to five people are becoming readily available in the market. An additional change that we are seeing is that workstation partition heights are increasing. We aren’t quite back to the ‘cubicle’ style workstation, but are somewhere in between the very open space plan and cubicles,” Khanani said.