The Pandemic Changed How We Use Space Forever — And The Design World Is Ready For It
Whether offices without traditional meeting and conference rooms, apartment buildings with designated homework and zoom rooms for the residents or completely redesigned schools and retail centers – the last year and a half have left indelible marks on interior design.
Rapid changes in American habits – some pre-pandemic, others born of the crisis – have turned traditional design and architecture upside down. But the business people say they are ready and even excited about what comes next: the opportunity to rebuild the office, traditional retail store, apartment complex, medical clinic and other important places of daily life from the ashes of the previous one .
Bisnow
Jason Carr from Cenero, Anne Weston from Interprise Design, Tiffany Woodson from Ink + Oro, Lindsay Wilson from Corgan, Tom Reisenbichler from Perkins & Will, Paul Manno from Gensler and Stephen Knowles from HDR
“We all know that it has to be different,” said Paul Manno, Director of Gensler and Design Director, on September 14 at Bisnow’s Dallas Architecture & Design Trends event. it worries about the next 18 months and the turning point. How do you do it great That’s really what we’re supposed to do. “
Manno said what’s next starts most dramatically with the office. This means that companies and real estate professionals are grappling with the idea that work is no longer a place, but an activity.
Though flexibility has become a buzz phrase that has often translated itself into chic coffee bars, decked hangouts, and other conveniences designed to lure reluctant workers back to their desks, Manno said it was time to recognize that flexibility is a shift in Thinking from the traditional office model to investing in technology that seamlessly brings remote, hybrid and on-site workers together.
“I think we have to get over the idea that we actually have to go to an old-fashioned place to work and that we can really work from anywhere if we get the right technology,” he said. “One of the things we’ve talked about a lot in our offices is the idea of ’Digital First’. So when we think of a customer or an activity, we should first think about how to solve it digitally and then actually think about where the work is being done. “
Many Dallas companies still cling to the traditional office model, and panellists agreed that DFW is more resilient to evolving work trends than the coastline. Lindsay Wilson, President and Executive Managing Principal of Corgan, said a number of companies are paying lip service to remote and hybrid work, but are looking for or keeping rooms with private offices in the hopes that those who will be before Fear open space, reclaim and maintain some of the status quo.
Employers are also trying to attract workers with amenities, high-end styling, and comfortable touches previously found in hotels and upscale apartment buildings, said Tiffany Woodson, managing partner of Ink + Oro, whose firm specializes in boutique hospitality and apartment buildings is.
“Of course, we’re also seeing some companies taking bold steps toward hybrid and remote working, but a lot of that is on the political side,” Wilson said, adding that the words don’t necessarily match the behavior.
Architecture and design experts say the busy, overcrowded office of the past is unlikely to return.
Many companies still act as if the office was the same place it was five years ago. Manno said that’s because too many whistle past the cemetery, believing that easy-to-fix “coffees and tchotchkes” are meaningful enough to bring staff back.
“If you think we can get people back to the office like it was a year and a half ago, you’re crazy,” he said.
He said the key will be technology that more equitably unites people everywhere they work, and a realignment of office culture and design for post-pandemic employees who are no longer willing to accept the old way of doing business.
A data analyst has been hired at Manno’s own workplace to help optimize the office by calculating which days people come and which not, how many places and where are used, how different rooms are used and other key figures.
The idea, he said, is to translate remote and hybrid work policies into spaces that support them and are informed by data. That could mean getting rid of the boardrooms, which serve no real purpose in the new office reality, or paying as much attention to individual workstations as to creating high quality indoor and outdoor amenities.
Panellists said it was time to take a bottom-up approach to office design and focus on what employees need and expect after many of them have been home for a year and a half.
“It’s a new world of work, but the possibilities in architecture and design right now? I don’t remember they were ever bigger than they are now, ”said Wilson. “Have people ever cared so much about their work environment? Not in my time. “
And it’s not just the work that moves quickly. Woodson said it is now time for architects and designers to reflect on the rapid and shocking change by disrupting all of the places where people live, conduct transactions, and conduct daily life.
“In the hotel and multi-family world, everything revolves around what the end consumer needs and how to make it flexible for him,” she said. “That might not just mean coworking and co-living, but also a place where your kids can come down and do their homework, or where you can have a zoom call or host your family for a barbecue at the same time. I think our rooms need to be more flexible than ever because we spend more time at home. “
According to HDR Design Principal Stephen Knowles, architects and designers should also think outside the box in healthcare facilities, retail stores, public transportation, schools and other public facilities.
“We need to put things together in a different way,” Knowles said, adding that customers are now asking for services like digital and physical world mapping to drive the design. “I know that shock is always tough. You want to back off to be safe and likely more conservative, but it’s a good time to question these ideas. We love that customers are opening up and I think these technologies and the way we use space are about to change. I’m looking forward to seeing that. “
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