2020 Workplace Design Predictions
It’s that time of the year again where everyone is rethinking their personal and professional goals for the next 12 months and getting behind their ‘new year, new me’ resolutions.
A new year doesn’t just present personal and professional growth opportunities. Trends (both new and pre-existing) quickly come to light and begin to shape our outlook for the year ahead. Office design trends, in particular, are constantly evolving and developing to ensure workplaces continue to provide environments that work for both the business and people using them. Keeping up with these trends can be a challenge in itself, let alone understanding which ones are fundamental to supporting your unique business needs.
Being at the forefront of office design and working with businesses in a variety of sectors, we have identified our own 2020 workplace design trends to help keep you ahead of the curve:
People Centric Design
Over the last couple of years, there has been a significant shift from businesses focusing on maximising headcount with private offices and large numbers of meeting rooms to workplace design now becoming much more people-centric. Over the next 12 months, this will pick up even more momentum with designers challenged to find more innovative ways of turning unused, complex space into collaborative, flexible areas, focused on giving employees more freedom and choice over how they work.
Businesses will also be looking for different ways of integrating health and well being concepts associated with employees into the design of their environments. One way they will achieve this is through furniture selections with residential styles taking precedence in the workplace to create scenes of comfort and enable spaces to break away from the traditional commercial aesthetic -which we see gaining more influence throughout design schemes over the coming months. Potentially products such as sleep pods, and fitness rooms may become more and more apparent in office design.
Technology
Workplace Technology is constantly evolving and holds significance in achieving a functional and flexible space. Dthree’s mantra for office design is focused on creating spaces which hold a purpose in supporting the business, whilst also considering its overall aesthetics – something technology will continue to contribute to throughout 2020. Technology will also hold a more significant role within the workplace for ways of improving the flow of communication and reducing the number of internal emails. Businesses will want to maximise communication opportunities outside the usual forums to ensure they continue to support flexibility where possible.
In addition, we believe business owners and landlords will begin to encourage tenants to engage more with the communities surrounding their workplace – technology will inevitably play a role in facilitating this interaction over the next 12 months.
This rise in technology requirements will result in businesses becoming more tech-savvy to the advanced systems available for creating functional and flexible spaces, whether its apps for lighting, air conditioning and temperature control, linking collaborative meetings to laptops to enhance communication opportunities, or simply bringing communities together.
Brand Integration
Your workplace should tell your story and create a sense of belonging for all those that use it. In the context of workplace design, integrating your brand doesn’t necessarily end with hanging your company logo above your reception desk. It can be reflected through materials, installations and details throughout the workplace to help define your organisation’s purpose and personality and even evoke an emotional relationship with those who encounter it. In 2020, Dthree predicts that telling your story, and well, will play a vital role in workplace design.
Wellbeing
Using design strategies to influence wellbeing in the workplace is no new trend but its importance will continue to rise this year. Whether you are a company of 10 or 10,000, paying attention to mental health at work has never been more significant and is a must for businesses looking to attract and retain new talent. The WELL Standard has been introduced to the design and build industry to ensure that employees’ health and wellness lies at the centre of all designs. Dthree is under the process of becoming certified and predict many commercial designers will follow suit over the next year to ensure workspaces meet the standard.
Take a look at our recent projects to find out more about our workplace design schemes and how we have helped businesses improve through the spaces they work.