The physical workplace going forward will provide a more personalized experience
As new hybrid work environments become more prevalent, the Perkins Eastman’s Design Strategy team explores the concept of the Fourth Place – a place that combines the functions of home, work, and public space.
We met the leaders of Perkins Eastman’s Design Strategy Team, Rebecca Milne and Scott Fallick, when Chicago’s annual NeoCon event had to pivot to virtual content. Work Design Magazine and theMart sought a virtual way to discuss their original topic, Defining and Designing a Successful Fourth Place, and how that may have changed in the advent of the COVID-19 era. They originally planned to explore the concept of the Fourth Place – a place that combines the functions of the first three: home, work, and public environments. As new hybrid work environments become more prevalent, they had planned to discuss this emerging concept’s value to the future of work.
Ironically, we have almost all been forced into unanticipated work environments because of COVID-19. Companies have had to regroup and reinforce not only the ability of their employees to work in their home environments but come together remotely, pushing the available technologies to create a new workplace, almost out of thin air. Already poised to discuss new and evolving work environments, we asked the team some questions to find out what they are working on and how they are exploring solutions across their varied clientele and portfolio.
Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic the A&D and CRE communities are moving into the implementation phases of whatever the “new normal” may be. While there is still no vaccine or a clear picture of how and when it will be safe for a unilateral return to the office, companies are evaluating their options. The Design Strategy team at Perkins Eastman has been hard at work with these companies, developing protocols for new physical space scenarios that will support their business as we move forward into “What’s Next”.
As you have been working with your clients, what are the key elements of the workplace that they are concerned about?
There have been concerns about the structure and role of the workplace for some time now: long, tedious commutes, a lack of private/focused space, work over wellness, among others. While many offices in America are open plan, heralded as a place for collaboration, most employees find them disruptive, even stressful. We’ve known this for some time but change in office design was an ongoing transformation.
COVID-19 has encouraged ideas about new work models. At its base, open offices are less conducive to the physical distancing protocols required to diminish COVID-19 transmission. With the success of remote working, some people wondered if we even needed the office. But from our own staff surveys, client roundtables, and individual research we found that while employees enjoy remote working, they still desire some office life and culture.
We have been helping clients write policies of process that reflect work models that work for them, asking questions like: What does a remote workforce look like for your business? How can your office reflect this new way of working? In other words, in a post COVID world, what is the role of the office and what does it look like?
We have found that clients who adopt these new hybrid work models can actually help their open office achieve its original intention as a facilitator of collaboration. For example, when paired with the flexibility of virtual collaboration and a physical office setting, the office can become so much more than the “walls” of the workplace.