I enjoy reading about the office of the future. Lately, many articles I’ve read describe an office made up of a variety of purpose driven activity “settings” that give workers choices of how and where to work.   This office description is the definition of an activity-based workplace or ABW.    This is not a new idea.  In fact, purpose driven spaces and workstations can be traced back to the mid to late 1960’s.    

Current articles about ABW applications relate mainly to conventional corporate offices.  The concept can work well where personnel and tasks are well defined.  Can activity based workplace concepts be translated into future shared workplace centers? How would they be applied?   

One application is the shift from large centralized corporate offices to smaller facilities. This will result in many corporates establishing satellites by relocating work groups in shared workplace centers.    Centers will support this personnel shift by adopting and translating activity-based workplace concepts and services that are similar to those used by their corporate clients. The objective will be to provide near-seamless shared working environments for relocated satellite workers.   The activity-based application, however, will need to be more generalized to accommodate the broad range of companies and individuals using the center.

Another application concerns home office workers. One result of the Covid-19 pandemic is a big increase in this group.  According to a recent poll conducted for Cisco, 90% of the responders said they would not return to their corporate offices full time.   Twelve percent said they would never return to their corporate office.  Future shared workplace centers will become important factors that will support this workplace change. They will have to be designed with activity-based workplace settings that augment the missing elements of the home office.  Centers will provide social interaction along with collaborative and community opportunities.   The shared workplace environment will have less distractions with the availability of various types of private, team, and specialized meeting spaces.   They will provide additional support with augmenting services and sophisticated technology that may be either unavailable or too expensive for home offices.

Activity based design and augmenting capabilities will be ineffective unless shared workplace centers can continually adapt and support future purpose driven functions.  This will be particularly important in the rapidly expanding field of communication technology.   One example of a new workspace is a hologram studio that can produce three dimensional virtual meetings.   A new technology company, ARHT Media, has launched HoloPod.    It is a fast set up, plug and play hologram system suitable for shared workplace center applications.   Other examples of emerging technology are multi-person podcast studios, 3D printing, and artificial intelligence applications.

In addition to adaptation, future shared workplace centers will need to lead with new spacial features that go beyond current center space plans.   One example is the “Neighborhood Suite”.  This element was originally described in our December 16, 2020 blog.   Neighborhood suites will average 1500 useable square feet. They will be built to independent enterprise-type clients’ specifications.  Neighborhood suites will provide identity, individuality and privacy. They will also have access to the added benefits of the shared workplace center’s common activity-based workplaces, services, technologies and more.    

The Covid-19 pandemic has propelled officing concepts into a new reality.   New relationships between conventional corporate offices and shared workplace centers are evolving as both facilities continue to change.  Future centers will have to be designed, as always, to support a broad range of differing clientele.    Activity-based workplace planning, generational work habits, new technologies, and wellness and market factors will require shared workplace centers to be continually open to new ideas. Agility and flexibility will be key factors in extending a facility’s useable life, relevance, and importance.  This will dictate construction methods that employ prefabricated, modular, reusable construction methods.   These methods will reduce construction time and cost.   Delivery time will also be reduced.    This will further support a key requirement of rapid reaction to client demands.

Welcome to 2021. Covid-19 should become more controllable with mass distribution of vaccines, effective treatments, and better population behavior. The new year will also bring a return of home office workers back to shared workplace centers either full or part time. Will they be returning to a healthy facility that supports their wellness?

A lot depends on the conditions of four basic elements. They are light, thermal comfort, sound control, and materials. Optimizing these elements, plays a large part in facility health and wellness.

A healthy office plan exposes 55% of its occupied space to natural light. This impacts office locations and space design. It is especially important in shared workplace centers where spaces exposed to natural light produce higher revenues. Artificial ambient lighting in centers is generally supplied by LED fixtures. They provide a consistent, long lasting, energy efficient level of light for interior spaces and augment naturally lit spaces also. 24/7 exposure to LED lighting, however, can be unhealthy. A healthier alternative to consistent lighting is a circadian system that emulates natural body rhythms from sunrise to sunset. The system may be implemented in three ways. They are intensity tuning relating to temperature, color tuning relating to light intensity, and stimulus tuning relating to wave lengths. Circadian systems can boost alertness and mood and are most important when lighting interior spaces.

Thermal comfort in shared workplace centers is often about discomfort caused by thermostatic settings and poorly designed variable air valve (VAV) systems. However, wellness and thermal comfort actually begin with efficient air exchange and effective filtration. Current commercial air systems have a minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV) of 6 to 8. Wellness supportive systems should have values of 13 to 17. Higher MERV’s can be attained by adding high efficiency particulate arrestance (HEPA) filters and fans that can remove as much as 99% of all airborne particles. Bringing air systems up to wellness levels in new construction can be costly and more so when modifying existing structures. As an example: HEPA filtration system costs can range from 35 cents to $1.10 per square foot verses current commercial system costs of 18 to 25 cents per square foot.

Sound control is another common problem in shared workplace centers. This is due to their variety of spaces and functions, variable human densities, and flexibility requirements. Controlling sound begins with the “ABC’s” – a combination of absorption, blockage, and cover sound. Shared workplace center designs should consider ceiling height(s), space densities and partition configurations, construction methods, and sound absorption values of finishes. A well-tuned and balanced sound masking system, based on design considerations, provides sound control. Effective application of the ABC’s results in a healthy wellness-supportive shared workplace environment that supports speech privacy and acoustical comfort. Average cost for sound masking: $1 to $3 per square foot.

Last on our list of important basic center wellness elements is materials – construction and finishes. The most common shared workplace center finish is paint. It may emit volatile organic compounds. Another common material is particle board used in furniture and millwork. It may contain formaldehyde. Various flooring materials may have finishes containing phthalates. These are all toxicants. Drywall faced with paper can support mold. These illustrations show the importance of choosing safe and healthy alternatives with Green Guard certification.

One more thing. Design, construct, and furnish new and existing shared workplace centers with a goal of Wellness Certification.

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.

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.

As always, AoPlan’s Blog is very interested in our readers comments and viewpoints .

Planning and designing tomorrow’s shared workplace centers presents unique challenges. Shared workplace concepts are evolving. This is the result of changes in workplace wellness requirements, societal, economic, and technology. Shared workplace evolution is causing us to rethink working environments, physical configurations, space requirements, and usage of these facilities.

Even the way we refer to shared workplaces is evolving. Currently, the term “co-work centers” is commonly used. Until recently, I thought a co-work center implied an open office multi-purpose workplace. The term now includes open and enclosed office spaces.

The shared workplace evolution is the result of four generations, simultaneously, using these facilities. The oldest, “Boomers”, were born in 1946. This group now also includes Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z groups who were born in the late 1990’s. Gen Alphas , the next generation, are not far behind. Each of these groups have specific needs and idiosyncrasies. For example: Millennials value community and collaboration with others and work well in open spaces. Gen Z users are more prone to working alone in private enclosed spaces and are driven more by individual performance and compensation.

This multi generational diversity of work habits and lifestyles has also impacted the average 10 year “life cycle” of the shared workplace center. Consider the generational effects on a shared workplace center opening today. During its projected 10 year life, Boomers will disappear, Gen X and millennials will age, and the unknown needs of future generations will follow Gen Z into the workplace. The new shared workplace center will have to be flexible, adaptable, and quickly responsive to accommodate this evolution .

Evolving workplaces will require physical re-configurations and spacial re-purposing during a center’s life cycle. Changes will cause discomfort and disruption . Taken to extremes, this can cause clients to leave the center and result in lost revenue. It is important to build flexibility and adaptability into the initial planning and design process to minimize disruptive change.

One solution is the use of floor to ceiling modular and moveable partition systems in lieu of conventional construction. At first glance, this may appear to be a more expensive option. However, we have tested this solution using one of our sample space plans as a basis. We found that if you consider shorter construction time, floor, ceiling, electrical, technology, and other economic factors, the resulting construction cost difference is less than 4%. Different modular widths should be kept to a minimum, however, to support re-configuration.

Another solution is locating “agility zones” into the initial design of the shared workplace. Agility zones are defined areas where reconfiguration and spacial repurposing can occur. Zones are a combination of conventionally built convertible enclosures and modularly partitioned spaces. They include private enclosures and open plan areas. Forty percent of a shared workplace center’s useable space should be dedicated to agility zones. The remainder of the useable space can include common use spaces such as meeting rooms, cafe’s, client service support areas, and statically constructed enclosed work spaces.

Both approaches support the future shared workplace center’s evolving planning challenges. Future blogs will talk about other solutions affecting space usage, different types of workstations, working environments, and products that support flexibility.

I’ve been space planning and designing shared workplace centers for over 30 years. Now, I find that many of the guiding principles I’ve been using are yesterday’s news.

Space is one of the two major costs in shared workplace center operations. Covid-19 is changing our space allocation rules. Among the new rules, is the requirement to separate people at least 6 feet apart. As an example of how this effects space usage, consider this. My son is a teacher. His classroom normally holds 30 students. New pandemic separation rules now allow a maximum of 15 students in that same space. Where do the other 15 students go? Do we build a bigger school or do we repurpose under utilized space in the current facility?

This same principle can be applied to space planning shared workplace centers with one major difference. If we apply the same classroom space example, a center will lose 15 workstations that will result in less revenue opportunities.

So, how do we handle this workstation loss? In open co-work spaces, we could use plexiglass shields between workstations. The 6′ separation would still be required. Helpful, but doesn’t return the space to its original density. Another possible solution may be adding small, high density enclosed workstations to the space. This would re-capture the workstation loss but would be costly in additional construction. A third solution is similar to my school room example. It involves a re-analysis of the shared workplace center’s current space utilization and a re-purpose plan for under utilized spaces. Constructions costs could be incurred also with this solution. However, this third alternative will make up workstation losses and provide flexibility for future space requirements.

Other common spaces will also be subject to new planning rules. Remember those 20 person conference rooms that were so common in centers? Healthy separation will allow only 10 persons in that same space. Cafe’s that were high density gathering spots will be effected also. People will be reluctant to sit close to each other. Their configurations may be changed to a “take out” food model.

So, a lot of questions about new rules remain. Not just in space planning but also in technology and interior environmental topics. Future blogs will dive deeper into these questions and continue to look to others for their input.