A lot has been written, lately, about what’s next for shared workspaces affected by the current pandemic. The truth is, changes to shared workplaces were already occurring before the worldwide onset of Covid-19. The pandemic only accelerated the process.
Office populations were already requiring broader choices in working environments prior to the pandemic. Combinations of co-work and traditional enclosed offices resulted in “hybrid” shared workplace centers. Wireless technology was making telephone land lines and fixed data lines obsolete. This resulted in greater workforce mobility. New worldwide remote conferencing software was also becoming available.
The pandemic also accelerated the growth of home office workers. Home offices have grown 173% since 2005. It is believed that 25 to 30% of the workforce will be working from home by the end of 2021. Corporate office decentralization is also increasing. It has resulted in the adoption of new concepts in management procedures related to remote worker productivity along with real estate savings. Home office and remote corporate workers are joining traditional shared workplace users because of their flexibility, choices of workplace environments, amenities, and services. Comprehensive planning will be necessary to simultaneously support the needs of all three groups.
Shared workplace center location is an important factor in comprehensive planning. It will be important to avoid long and time consuming commutes. Remote, home, and traditional shared workplace users will require comfortable and functional common spaces that include reception, cafe(s), lounges, time out game spaces, co-work areas, and service support areas. Centers will also include multiple and multi-use convertible conference centers. They will take up disproportionally larger floor areas than earlier models and be supported with state of the art remote conference software. This is due to communication and collaboration requirements of home and remote corporate work groups.
A new spacial alternative, the “neighborhood” , will appear in new models. Neighborhoods consist of modularly constructed, specialty suites that can expand or contract quickly and with minimal impact on surrounding building services. Neighborhoods will be located where reconfiguration will cause the least disruption to center operations. Suites are self contained. They will provide security and privacy for remote corporate work groups and small businesses. Suites will be custom designed to client specifications. They will have the added benefits of all center common areas.
The following virtual block plan is an example of a comprehensive planning approach to a 20,000 useable square foot share workplace center.
Common spaces: 20%, 4,000 sqft.
Convertible conference center: 10%, 2,000 sqft.
Traditional enclosed office spaces: 30%, 6,000 sqft.
Neighborhood suites: 25%, 5,000 sqft.
Circulation: 15%, 3,000 sqft.
This our last blog for 2020. We hope you will continue to visit AoPlan’s blog thru 2021. Future topics will include post Covid-19 affects on shared workplace centers, industry news and views, and interesting new products.
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