By now, I am sure we are all aware of how artificial intelligence is changing our lives.   I decided to apply this new technology to a series of office topics.   The following are responses to my questions from Bing.com:

My first question was about the office of the future.    AI response:

“The office of the future has been evolving over the years.  It is expected to be more flexible, collaborative, and technology-driven.  The future of the office will be about collaboration, open-plan offices, and working remotely…….As work culture shifts to a flexible hybrid working model, organizations will have to rethink their office space to accommodate new norms.  What they will look like is still being defined.”

I persisted by asking about office flexibility and its importance.  AI response:

“Office flexibility is a strategy for responding to changes that may occur and meeting expectations…….Flexible work arrangements can include telecommuting, flexible schedules, job sharing, part-time work, and compressed workweeks…….The benefits of workplace flexibility include increased productivity, employee satisfaction, and retention rates……In addition, workplace flexibility prioritizes the best circumstances for workers to thrive in.   Rather than a rigid time line or environment, this structure supports the need for work-life balance.   It embraces the idea that employees can be at their most productive no matter if they’re in the office or sprawled on the sofa at home on a weekday.”

I asked about the future of the private office.  AI response:

“The future of the private office is changing. According to a LinkedIn article, the future workplace is a hybrid office. There are open spaces where ideas can flow freely, and creativity and innovation are thriving. And then there are areas where people can focus in a quiet environment, where private meetings can take place and where people go when they don’t want to be distracted” (partial quote)

In its private office response, AI referred to a “hub-and spoke” model.  I wanted to know more.  AI response:

“According to Forbes, the hub-and-spoke model enables a centralized “hub” for people to come together while providing the choice to work from “spokes.”   A spoke does not have to be a conventional office but instead any from which a person can be productive.   The hub-and-spoke model offers an alternative to your main office by giving remote workers access to local office spaces on demand.”

The mention of “local office spaces on demand” could include shared workplace centers.   I asked AI to define a shared workplace center facility.   This is where AI showed its fallibility with its dated response.

“A shared workplace center is a type of office space that is shared by multiple business or individuals.  It is an alternative to traditional office spaces and can be started on a reasonable investment of about $25,000.   Shared office centers usually consist of 20 to 30 small individual offices housed in one location.  Additional revenue can be generated from providing tenants with “extra services” such as reception, and secretarial services, high-speed photocopying, parcel shipping and receiving, and boardroom facilities.”

I asked AI for the difference between flex office and co-working spaces that is more current with the modern concepts of shared workplace centers.   AI response:

“Flexible workplaces are typically owned by a co-working company from which a business rents offices or open space on a short-term basis.  They can come from hot desks, coworking spaces, open offices, or dedicated desks.   While hot desks allow users to book a desk whenever they need it, dedicated desks provide more constant users with the same workspace whenever they com to the office.   Co-working spaces can be reserved on-demand at an hourly, daily, or weekly rate.   Many also offer monthly rates.  Coworking spaces are designed to be collaborative environments where people can work together and share ideas.”

I asked AI for examples of flex spaces.  Within seconds I was provided with a large and varied array of pictorial examples.

Finally, I asked about the profitability a shared flex office center can provide. AI response:

“According to some sources, shared flex offices can be very profitable for commercial real estate owners and operators….. Shared spaces have the potential to generate two to three times as much revenue per square foot as traditional office space…… 43% of all flexible workplaces generate a direct profit from their operation…… Coworking growth in 2018 reach almost 20%….. However, profitability also depends on several factors, such as occupancy rates, location, amenities, pricing, and competition.”

All the above responses are direct quotes from AI on Bing.com.  They came complete with footnotes and directions to similar topics.  The responses are interesting. I was more fascinated, however, that in a few seconds, artificial intelligence technology was able to find, evaluate a broad range of information relevant to my questions, and respond in clear, well composed conversational prose.  This is only the beginning.

I am a student of the office.    Over the past 50 years, I have designed, planned, and furnished countless corporate and flex office suites.   This blog is about some of my memories, some history, and some of what I have learned about the office going forward.

The modern era of office planning began with the arrival of the Quickborner Team in the 1950’s.    I didn’t learn about them until the late 1960’s.    Up to that time, office plans consisted of 30×60 desks and chairs lined up regimentally.  The open plan was usually surrounded by private offices. Except for typewriters, adding machines, and telephones, the office had not changed, substantially, in 100 years.   Office plans lacked privacy, individuality, and personality.  The Quickborner team changed that with their organic planning concepts.     Their plans were open, free flowing and colorful.    They had natural, meandering circulation patterns.   Moveable low partitions provided workstation privacy.   Plants added to the natural, informal environment.   These concepts are generally referred to as office landscaping.

Then, in 1968, Herman Miller unveiled the Action Office 2 furniture system.    I attended the manufacturer’s second product presentation of this new furniture concept.  It was exciting. The system was meant to support dynamically changing office environments.   Partitions were moveable, modular, and connectable.  Work surfaces, shelving, and file storage were suspended from the partitions.  I designed one of the earliest word processing centers with the Action Office 2 system.   It had state of the art office technology. It would be archaic by today’s standards.   Outside sales people dictated messages on tape recorders located in the center.   Typists transcribed the messages into hard copy.  I based the design on Quickborner’s office landscaping concepts.  The function may have been boring but the working environment was fun.

What followed, was the cubicle revolution.   Many furniture manufacturers joined Herman Miller in selling products like Action Office 2.   Office furniture systems were marketed as space saving and flexible office solutions.   They were neither.   Workstation plans rarely changed after their initial installation.     Furniture systems became more complex and included more specialized parts.   Multiple electrical circuits and spaces for data lines were added to panel bases.   Ineffective acoustical treatments were applied to panel surfaces as attempts to control problems with ambient sound. Evolving office technologies added more furniture components.   Furniture installations required specialized installers and specifiers.   In major corporations, large, rigid cubicle plans returned to regimentation. They became colorless, impersonal working environments.  Worker isolation became a problem.   The result was an office facility that was defined, simply and coldly, as a place where work got done.                             

Office cubicles began to disappear as the boomer generation aged and Generation X appeared.   The boomers coined the term “workaholic.”  Gen Xers discarded “workaholism” in favor of a work/life balance. They dressed casually, and introduced the personal computer to the office.    The millennial generation followed and introduced the internet.   Millennials believed in collaboration and team work. This group preferred a social atmosphere in the workplace.  Generation Z is the youngest working group. They are the first true digital generation.    They don’t mind working alone or remotely.  They are entrepreneurial, independent, and pragmatic.   They don’t need a conventional office.    The oldest Gen Z person is 26.

What did all these generational changes mean to office design?   Over time, some office walls and office furniture system cubicles began to disappear.     The conventional desk became an adjustable height table with mobile storage.    Goal oriented teams became more common.  The affect was the need for an increased variety of office spaces.  The private office, however, did not disappear entirely.   Independent workers, start-up companies, and remote workers still preferred them.  Many large, medium, and small companies still had rigid management levels and workstation hierarchies. Generational impacts were continuing to affect working environments and management styles.   The terms “flexible,” “agile”, and “wellness” became more common in new office descriptions.   A new goal in office design emerged that provided a welcoming, positive working environment.   Large open spaces were dedicated to cafes and lounge/collab areas.  Plants and access to sunlight added natural, healthy informality.   Generational affects transformed the office facility into a welcoming destination rather than just a place to work. 

The greatest change to the office occurred on June 29, 2007.   That was the date Apple released the iPhone.   This invention, effectively, put the office into the palm of your hand.   Over the following sixteen years, the iPhone and other smart phones expanded communication capabilities locally and worldwide.  Innumerable application services were added.   The office worker was no longer tethered to an office workstation.   Wired desk phones and desk top computers were unnecessary.  The advent of the smart phone affected all working generations.  It reduced the needs for many office support positions.    It changed Industries such as office furniture and office products.  It reduced office space requirements and negatively affected commercial real estate.   

The smart phone allowed the office to go home when the Covid 19 pandemic of 2020 occurred.   Home officing had always been an option.   Home computers and the smartphone made home officing a workable, comfortable alterative to the conventional office.   Zoom, Skype and other applications supported most office functions and face to face collaboration.    Flexible shared workplace centers became options for person-to-person communal interactions and meetings when the pandemic passed.  

Currently, many companies are attempting to bring the workforce back to the centralized office.  Methods include bonus dollars, part time officing or “hybrid” presence and enforced returns.   Those who return to the centralized office, will require generationally enhanced working environments.

Going forward, I believe corporate offices will continue to decentralize.   Alternate officing solutions will continue to grow with new variations and popularity.    The exceptions may be offices connected to manufacturing facilities where direct contact with plant productivity is needed.   Artificial intelligence applications, growth in information technology, amenities, and connectivity will govern the locations of future offices.

Shared Workplace Center Development Part 1, originally published in April 2021 on AoPlan’s blog, provided a general description of the shared workplace facility and business, an overview of the development team’s makeup, and the importance of market knowledge. It also stressed the importance of efficient space planning and functional, memorable interior and architectural design.

Part 2 focuses on Project Programming. This is the important first step in shared workplace facility development. Programming is the process of gathering and analyzing information about a project before beginning the design phase. The program contains the guiding principles that will be used throughout the project’s development.

There are five basic steps to programming:

1. Initial project definition and goals: What does the owner/client want to achieve?
2. Facts: Learning about the client/owner and their knowledge of the shared workplace center business
3. Concepts: Client/owner design ideas. The aesthetic and psychological impacts of the design. Level of quality. Spacial flexibility over the life of the facility. A review of preferred building shapes and available interior space requirements. Discussion of spaces and services the center will offer. Spacial relationships and circulation flow.
4. Needs: Location and market studies. Discussion of budget requirements and opinion of potential project costs. Time constraints.
5. General Project Discussion: Significant conditions affecting the project. General directions about the final design. Space planning and efficiency standards. Office technology requirements.

Program Research: Site visits and surveys of prospective locations.

According to Aristotle, water seeks its own level.   I believe the same principle can be applied to “the office of the future”.   In recent years, designers, planners and various technicians have written countless articles on the subject.

Many views conflicted or included extreme proposals.   Open space plans vs. traditional offices is an example of one conflicting view.    An extreme example of office planning proposes one-way circulation in hallways and circles with six-foot radii around desks to separate people.  

The written conversation about “the office of the future” began before the covid-19 pandemic but intensified as centralized offices emptied and workers set up home office facilities.    Vaccines and treatments for the virus have provided workers with optional ways to return to the office.    Approximately 30% will continue to work from home fulltime.   Of the other 70%, slightly more than half will return to a central corporate office fulltime.   The remainder will be part of a hybrid workforce that spends up to 4 days in remote workplace locations.   Hybridization and full-time remote workers may result in smaller and fewer centralized corporate office facilities.   Their design has yet to be fully defined.

The shared workplace center will be a potentially important option for remote workers.   Historically, they have catered to start-up teams, freelancers, and entrepreneurs.   The pandemic has added an influx of small to medium sized businesses, large corporates, and a variety of remote workers. These additions will impact the design, operation, and economic structure of future shared workplace centers.

Traditionally designed shared workplace centers are made up of small private offices, traditional conference rooms, pantries, reception areas, and mail, copy and minor support services.     In future models, private offices are enclosed spaces that will house one to thirty persons.   The reception area will be part of an open plan that supports work, community and relaxation.  The pantry will become a large kitchen that includes a client gathering area.   Conference rooms will be flexible and designed to support several configurations.   Other key elements will stress client wellness, flexibility, and a variety of special need spaces.   Questions still remain about where or how these new components will be applied in future shared workplace models.   

In the future, centralized corporate office design will be better defined and shared workplace centers planners will develop models that will include new space component combinations and services.   Over time, future office facilities will be less revolutionary and more evolutionary.   In other words, as with water, they will seek their own levels.

I chose to work at home more than ten years ago.   My home office is quiet, comfortable, and contains all of the tools I need to be productive.   I use local shared workplace centers that have high tech meeting spaces and open communal areas for informal gatherings.     It’s doubtful that I will ever return to a traditional office.   

The traditional office was the most popular workplace when I made my decision.  When the covid-19 pandemic happened, traditional offices closed and home offices increased exponentially.   Prior to the pandemic, the percentage of home office workers could be counted in single percentage points.   At the height of the pandemic, more than half of the US workforce was working from home.

Workers, new to home officing, found themselves working longer hours.    This caused problems with their work/life balances.   Home officing isolated them from their daily coworkers.   They missed their office community and person to person communication.   Home officing brought about managerial and procedural changes along with a greater dependency on remote meeting technology .   Over eighty-five percent of this new group of home office workers were not content with their remote working conditions.  They began to look for other workplace alternatives.

A menu of workplace choices has emerged that contains new ideas and expectations for new normal post-covid workplaces.    The menu includes four major choices.

The first choice is a return to the centralized traditional office full time.    Returning workers will find their workplace needs have changed.  They will want a greater variety of workspaces that include open office environments, dedicated workstations, and enclosed multi-person team spaces. They will have a greater need for meeting and gathering spaces that may include in-office refreshments.  Workspace variety will provide office returnees with flexibility and opportunities to work where and how they desire. These changes will require redesigning many traditional offices to support the new normal working expectations. 

A second choice is remaining in the home office. Fifteen to eighteen percent of the workforce will continue working remotely full time.

The hybridization of the workplace is the logical third choice.   This approach allows workers to share time between home and office.   An average plan will call for three days in the traditional office and two days at home.   A reduction in workplace size will be a positive result.    There are some drawbacks with this approach.   One is a lack of workplace continuity when working in two locations. This can result in reduced productivity.   Another is the perceived managerial attention difference paid to part time home and full time traditional office workers that can have negative affects on promotions and salaries.

Some workers returning to the traditional office, full or part time, will miss many of the comforts, freedoms and informality they enjoyed working from full time home offices.  Yet, they will not be ready to return to the isolation from co-workers or the distractions that come with working from home.  

The fourth choice is officing in a “third place”, a shared workplace center, that is neither home nor traditional office.    Shared workplace centers can serve the needs of the home office worker, workers involved in hybrid programs, and support a company’s plans to de-centralized their main office.

Shared workplace centers provide the community of a traditional office.   They have state of the art office technology and meeting facilities that support collaboration with internal and remote communication systems.    Shared workplace centers are designed to support workplace flexibility and offer choices of where and how to work.   Café and lounge areas provide work separation and relaxation options.    Daily commuting can be greatly reduced by choosing a shared workplace center close to home.  

Fourteen months ago, faced with a new and deadly virus, the world went home.   Whole populations spent more than a year in quarantine.    Quarantine, however, did not mean that everything stopped.  We just began to do things differently.   Case in point: the office workplace.

For the office, “differently” meant working from home.   Overnight, those with smaller homes, found spaces to work in.  Rooms in larger homes became offices.   The furniture industry quickly developed comfortable and efficient products to support the home office.   Technology, however, was the key to success for this different way of working.

Zoom and other similar platforms provided community and collaboration.   The home office worker was no longer isolated.   He or she also found that they didn’t need to adhere to a rigid work schedule.   Technology was available 24 hours a day.  The barking dog or noisy children became acceptable parts of the environment.    Comfortable clothing took the place of accepted work attire.   In fourteen months, the home office became a mainstream workplace facility.

At last, after fourteen months of quarantine, the world is waking up to a new normal.   Various polls indicate that approximately 85% of the workforce is looking forward to returning to the office.  Many companies are adopting hybrid work schedules that allow employees to split their workweek between the office and a remote location.   The result is a reduction in corporate office size since less fulltime workstations are necessary.   Some other companies are decentralizing their corporate offices and setting up satellite offices in what is referred to as a hub and spoke scheme.   

Corporate office changes will have an impact on the shared workplace center model.    Centers will become locations for rotating workforces that do not want to return to home offices.    Conventional users that officed in centers prior to the pandemic will return to the shared environment.  This group includes startup companies, remote workers, and independent consultants.   A third group is the enterprise segment includes satellite locations.   They began using centers prior to the onset of the pandemic.   A fourth group consists of home office workers who do not want to return to the office environment but need its amenities and services.

This growing and varied workforce will require a shared workplace model that can adapt and provide supportive working environments, choices, amenities, services, and technology that all four groups require.  Individual and remote workers need choices of private, semi-private and open offices.   Startup companies need choices of a variety of private office spaces.    Sizes will range from two person to thirty-person team spaces.  The enterprise group consists of specialized task forces that may be housed in as little as fifteen hundred dedicated square feet.   Larger enterprise units and satellite locations may take full floors or possibly full buildings.   All enterprise units are designed as individual units and constructed to client specifications.   All four groups will have access to a flexible conference and event center with state-of-the-art equipment.     In addition, a visually well-designed common gathering area that contains, a reception area, a comfortable lounge, community tables, a fully stocked café, and shared services will be available to all four groups.    

The bubble plan below indicates the space size percentages and relationships of a shared workplace center that is described above.   It is based on a 20,000 square foot floor plate.

This month’s post is one of two blogs about successful shared workplace center development.   It begins with a basic definition of a shared workplace center, describes the important initial development team and details the responsibilities of planning and design members.

The Basics: Shared workplace centers are businesses Involved in hospitality, services, and office environments.  They are owned and operated, generally, for profit.   Space is either leased, purchased, or acquired through a landlord/owner combination agreement.   The space is subdivided into open and enclosed workstations, meeting spaces, service areas, and amenities.  Space is the most expensive development item.   Other development costs include professional fees, construction, furniture, equipment, and technology.

The initial team: Shared workplace development requires the coordinated team efforts of marketing, financial, interior design, space planning, and architectural professionals.   Industry and general workplace knowledge for all members are very important factors for successful center development.   Targeting, defining and studying potentially productive markets are essential elements that also include finding locations with supportive demographics and amenities.   Space planners perform initial tests on potential locations to determine probable spacial efficiency, environmental, and architectural assets.   Financial is the governing factor that interfaces with all team members in areas of program development, potential construction costs, operational costs, and spacial monetization

Space planning: Space planning shared workplace centers is a specialty.  Along with industry knowledge, planners are familiar with center operation and technology.   They are familiar with state-of-the-art spacial types and relationships.  Spacial efficiency, configuration flexibility, and circulation are major factors in shared workplace center space planning.  Circulation is considered non-revenue producing space and must be kept at a minimum that allows for comfortable, efficient movement through the center and avoids a confusing “maze” effect.  Operational and personnel efficiencies have impacts on potential profitability.  Flexibility allows the center to adapt to market changes and extends its life.    Space planners interact with the marketing and financial team members throughout the planning process to assure the final configuration supports the projected market and can be monetized to provide projected economic returns.    The space configuration must also provide interesting and activity supportive space opportunities for aesthetic applications.  

Interior design/architectural:  Shared workplace interior designers and architects are industry specialists with knowledge that produces long term visual and market-supportive facilities.   Their optimum target is a product that balances aesthetic value, design stability, trendiness, excitement, and long-term adaptability, all within a predefined market, budget, general image, and finish level defined by the initial team.    Designing interiors for shared workplace centers is different from general office design.   Center designs are aimed at broader user markets as opposed to limited corporate cultures.   Center clients cover wide talent spectrums and have broader working environmental requirements as opposed to defined functions found in corporate offices.    Interior designers are responsible for specifying finishes, design details, materials, non-structural elements that include lighting, sound control, and special millwork.  In addition, they are responsible for design documents, specifications, and design details.    Architects are responsible for all structural elements, developing construction documents, details, and specifications.   In addition, they coordinate with electrical, plumbing and mechanical engineers and are involved in managing the project.   

This blog is only an overview of some of what we’ve learned about shared workplace center development.    Part two will delve a little deeper into specific topics such as expanded team members, first impressions, evolving client work habits, services, and material procurement.

As always, AoPlan’s blog welcomes questions and comments.