As usual, it’s the Americans who are leading the way. In particular, the giant US technology companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Uber, whose Silicon Valley headquarters and offices are helping to transform the world of work. Facebook’s new headquarters in California, for instance, is a vast light-filled complex with a nine-acre green space on the roof, complete with walking trail. Apple’s new Cupertino base is surrounded by trees transplanted from the Mojave desert; the pizzas come in a newly patented box designed to prevent sogginess.
Everywhere you look in Silicon valley, there are ping-pong tables and table football games, beanbags, “living walls” of greenery, yurts, indoor bike paths, hammocks, saunas, meditation pods, chillout zones and play areas. The idea is to break down barriers: between work and leisure, and between the workers themselves, creating a less hierarchical, more productive work environment.
Shiny happy offices
Some of these ideas would look a bit silly in the typical British office – and some would be totally impractical. But the basic principles behind these shiny happy workspaces are feeding into our office design and business furniture trends. What this means is that the traditional office – ranks of desks in an open-plan office, or cubicles divided by partitions – is becoming a thing of the past. Walls and partitions are coming down. Spaces are opening up, becoming more organic, more flexible, more varied. An office might have desks in one corner, and sofas or armchairs in the other. At a time when the UK’s economy is approaching full employment, companies need to find new ways to attract and retain staff – and an attractive working environment can be an important factor.
The basic tool of the office worker – the desk-based PC – is now no longer essential. Laptops these days have similar computing power and can of course be carried around. This means that workers no longer need to be tied to a fixed workstation. It’s also reckoned that around 60 per cent of desks are unoccupied at any time in the working day, because the people who work there are out of the office on the road or elsewhere in meetings. So the traditional desk, where a worker would be sitting for almost all of their working day, is becoming obsolete. Today’s workers are much more relaxed about where, and how, they sit: on chairs, in armchairs, on sofas, beanbags, even on the floor.
Of course, many employees still need a base where they can store their possessions, start the day, keep their work folders and papers, and so on. So desks and chairs are still part of the furniture. But they don’t need to be as big, as substantial, as they have been in the past. And for those who are still tied to their desks for long periods, desks that are adjustable from sitting to standing – with motors that enable them to rise and fall at the push of a button - will help prevent posture problems and introduce variety.
Workers these days are also more collaborative, more informal and less hierarchical. As more millennials enter the workforce, the old conventional ways of working are disappearing, replaced by people working together in groups. Where do they do this? In breakout areas, meeting areas – even in office canteens. Employers are finding that this leads to a more productive working environment.
Flexible and friendly
Creating this new working environment means creating a comfortable and attractive office with lots of recharging points for laptops and phones (ideally these should be wireless) and wall-mounted screens for presentations. Furniture could be sofas with low tables, cubes, comfortable chairs and tables that can be reconfigured for small or large groups. The office canteen or café, once a very functional place, is becoming a space where groups of workers will sit with coffee, snacks, lunch and laptops. Furniture therefore needs to be more flexible, easy to reconfigure for impromptu meetings.
Breakout spaces with soft furniture are another useful space. These can be semi-enclosed, or simply occupy the corner of a room, with its own furniture and its own character. Some companies are building booths, similar to those found in diners, with banquette-style benches for collaborative working. Sometimes, breakout areas are furnished with the kind of high “poseur” stools and tables normally seen in bars and pubs – ideal for a quick meeting or for sitting and catching up on emails.
This new flexibility is leading to the disappearance in offices of walls and partitions. Of course, large spaces need to be broken up in some way to avoid aesthetic monotony, but this can be done with attractive semi-open room dividers, perhaps with plants on shelves. Nothing is hidden away in the new office space.
The new flexible interactive office might become rather overwhelming for some people. Which is why some companies are introducing private areas where workers can relax, put headphones on and listen to music, catch up on social media, or just chill out. These areas need to be furnished in muted colours, nothing too bright, but the most important thing is comfort: it should be a kind of den, a sanctuary of softness and quiet, with perhaps beanbags or low soft seating and footrests.
Rise of the rented office
Some companies are doing away with head offices altogether, with workers based mostly at home and meeting up in hired office spaces when necessary. This has led to a rise in the market for rented offices – spaces that are flexibly furnished for meetings, presentations, and so on. In a competitive market, it’s important that these offices are attractive as well as functional; today’s flexible workers want more than a dull, functional, corporate-looking space. It might therefore be a good idea to introduce splashes of colour in the furniture or upholstery to give the rented office a homelier, more human atmosphere.
How green is your office?
Another important trend in office design and furnishing is known as “biophilic design”. This means, essentially, lots of greenery. The presence of plants and greenery has been shown to improve workers’ productivity. Indeed, a 2010 study from the University of Sydney showed that plants in offices reduce tension and anxiety among workers. Ambitious companies are introducing “living walls”, an entire wall of plants and greenery, constantly being watered and given plenty of natural light (another must for the 21st-century office). More modestly, plants placed on desks, on the floor or on small tables can bring an office, literally, to life.
Workers’ playtime
And finally, today’s younger office workers have a playful side that they want to see carried through into the work environment, in a world where barriers between work and play are disappearing. Companies can help them to explore this playfulness by introducing games, or even games rooms, if there’s enough space.
The games themselves might just be a selection of board games, played on low tables with comfortable armchairs or sofas; or they could be ping-pong, table football, or even computer games, with a special room set aside for gaming, with slouchy furniture and a vibrant, playful ambience. It’s a far cry from the formal, regimented nine-to-five life that was the world of work for their parents and grandparents.