"Space Creates People" The Office Transformation That Even Transformers Would Be Surprised By [Jjinbit]

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] "People build buildings, and buildings build people." British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said this on October 28, 1943, when he promised to rebuild the British Parliament building, which had collapsed two years earlier due to World War II. This statement emphasizes how much space influences human life. One of the spaces that changes the life of office workers is the office itself. Since the spread of remote work after COVID-19, the role of the 'offline' office is changing. In a situation where even the digital world of the metaverse has emerged, what does the office look like?

First, let's take a look at the characteristics of the 'future of work' as envisioned by global companies that are experimenting with changes in the office ahead of others.

◆ Changed Design... Spaces Emphasizing 'Collaboration'

The first characteristic is that the number of meeting rooms where collaboration can take place has greatly increased. According to a survey conducted by social networking service (SNS) LinkedIn on over 4,000 office workers from May to June last year, more than 60% of respondents cited face-to-face collaboration or socializing with colleagues as the reason for going to the office. As remote work, where people work alone, spreads, face-to-face communication with colleagues decreases, so having meetings and collaborating makes the office space important. The biggest difference between home and office is the presence of colleagues, so the role that future offices must perform is collaboration.

According to CNBC, American financial software company Intuit changed the design of its office building under construction during the COVID-19 pandemic. They judged that more collaborative spaces were needed in the office as employees' work styles changed. Carolyn Morris, Project Director at Cleve Wilkinson Architects, said, "Initially, Intuit's plan focused on workspaces. After experiencing COVID-19, they realized that the work environment had changed, and the architecture had to change to match the reasons employees needed to come to the office." They didn't just create spaces where many people could gather but designed various types of meeting rooms considering meeting sizes and created spaces equipped with video technology to communicate with employees working remotely.

This year, Google opened and unveiled the interior space of the Bayview Campus (Photo source: Google Official Blog)

This year, Google opened and unveiled the interior space of the Bayview Campus (Photo source: Google's official blog)

Meeting rooms have been widely adopted not only by Intuit but also by many global companies including Google and LinkedIn. Leonora Georgiou, Design Team Lead at the prominent American architectural design firm HED, emphasized in an interview with Business Insider on the 8th (local time) that the recent office design trend is that "'we-space' has increased, and 'me-space' has decreased," focusing more on shared spaces rather than individual ones. She added that as remote work spreads, employees work quietly at home when they need to concentrate, and offices require various collaborative spaces for full meetings.

◆ Spaces More Flexible Than Transformers

Another characteristic that offices have acquired as a form of collaboration is the ability to flexibly reconfigure spaces. Have you ever experienced a small group of 2-3 people meeting in a corner of a large meeting room? Meanwhile, another team waits for the meeting room to be free because there is no other room available. In such cases, even though there is a large meeting room, its utilization drops, and employees waste time unnecessarily. If that meeting room could be divided into two, two teams could hold meetings simultaneously.

According to The Washington Post (WP), the Toronto office on the third floor of IBM Canada, which opened last April, has a space where the layout can be easily changed. Employees can move office walls as needed, and office furniture including desks is arranged to be easily movable. Dave McCann, President of IBM Canada, explained, "With the new hybrid work style, it was important to create spaces designed for comfort and collaboration."

IBM Canada Toronto New Flagship Office (Photo by IBM Canada Twitter)

The event at the opening of IBM Canada's new flagship office in Toronto last April (Photo by IBM Canada Twitter)

British Rolls-Royce also invested $8 million in its Indianapolis office in the U.S. to explore changes in the office. Tom Bell, CEO of Rolls-Royce North America, said in an interview with WP on the 7th that they introduced hybrid work and opened this office in May, creating collaborative spaces on the second floor. He introduced that branch managers from other countries such as Germany and the UK have gathered and held meetings in this space, which can be flexibly reconfigured regardless of team size.

◆ Significant Reduction of Assigned Seats, Choose Where You Want to Sit

The third trend is that assigned seats in the office have been greatly reduced, and various seating options have been provided so employees can sit wherever they want. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) introduced LinkedIn's new flagship office in Silicon Valley on the 1st, reporting that there are as many as 75 different types of seats inside. Initially, LinkedIn planned to place 1,080 standard office desks on one floor, but after COVID-19, they completely changed the design, reducing the number of standard desks to about half, 569, and filling the remaining space with uniquely shaped desks.

(Photo by Wall Street Journal)

Most of these spaces focus on what employees feel comfortable with. The cloud-based communication platform company Twilio created casual caf?-style spaces in its headquarters building in San Francisco to make it easy for employees to use, according to WP. The U.S. customer relationship management company Salesforce placed a 75-acre ranch in the Redwoods of Scotts Valley, California, where employees can work while taking breaks to walk in nature, tend gardens, do yoga, or attend cooking classes. Since each individual has different characteristics of spaces where they feel comfortable and can concentrate well, various spaces are provided for employees to choose from.

Now, with remote work spreading due to COVID-19, employees are looking for reasons to come to the office. It should be a space that fosters collaboration with other employees and enhances concentration. It is not a simple competition between choosing either home or office, but it is important to reorganize spaces focusing on 'coexistence' by embracing digital innovation while effectively utilizing the advantages of the office space that was common before COVID-19.

Editor's Note[Jjinbit] is short for ‘Jeong Hyunjin’s Business Trend’ and ‘Real Business Trend,’ a corner that shows trends in corporate management such as organizational culture and personnel systems. Based on analyses from foreign media and major overseas institutions that have not received much attention so far, we will deliver fresh and differentiated information and perspectives.