The flex office is currently a very hot topic. However, as a planning procedure, it’s not new. It just got lost for a while. It first showed up in the late 1950’s and lasted through the late 1960’s. It started out with simple moveable partitions and furniture. In 1967, Herman Miller applied the concept to Action Office II. It was a basic panel system with panel supported and free standing furniture. The concept evolved into overly sophisticated, immoveable and regimented “Dilbert” cubicles. Open office flexibility was lost. Throughout this period, hard walled single person and shared offices with doors and locks remained.
Over this same period, office technology evolved and improved. Gone, were noisy typewriters and business machines. Computers and communication devices became more common, faster, and quieter. Office “loud talkers” began using headphones. The result was a quieter facility with less distractions.
Technology and changing social and work habits led to co-working and brought the open office back to corporate and shared workplaces. Co-work spaces were open but less flexible or economically viable in shared workplace centers. This led to a “hybrid” concept that blended open co-work and conventional enclosed office spaces. This was a better economic solution but didn’t support flexibility.
Then along came Covid-19. Corporates sent office workers home for health reasons. Shared workplace centers emptied for the same reasons. The result was an increase in home office workers. There are many questions about when or if there will be a return to offices – corporate or shared. How many will come back to the office? What percentage? There are no shortages of views on these subjects. In my opinion, two thing are certain. The “office” is not going away any time soon. Its current concepts will change. The returning office populations will feel differently about their workplaces. They will require them to be flexible, adaptable, and supportive to their needs. This is particularly important for future shared workplace centers.
Future shared workplaces will have to include flexible construction methods and materials in order to maintain long term market viability. Here are some examples of how flexibility can be attained.
Let’s start with floors. Raised floors with easily changeable electrical, communication, and open pressurized HVAC systems provide long term flexibility and cost savings. Go to http://www.priceindustries.com for more information on these systems. Wall systems, whether glass or solid, should be modular, alterable, and reusable. They should not house electrical and communication elements that reduce flexibility and add cost . Ceilings should have a common grid system throughout. This allows for changes in lighting, additions of design elements, and spaces. A good example of flexible products is an Armstrong Ceiling solution that suspends moveable glass panels from a modified ceiling grid.
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