BLOG
Offices
What will the office of the future look like?

Offices

What will the office of the future look like?

SEPTEMBER 2023 | 4 minutes

Nowadays, we understand offices as much more than just workplaces. They are spaces that become a fundamental pillar for people, being the setting where a large part of their working life takes place, month after month, year after year.

Going to the office only makes sense when it offers a brand experience and generates a company culture for the team and for customers. The workspace acts as a calling card and conveys values.

And everything contributes to a positive experience, from colour, to light, to layout, to staff movement, and many other factors.

New ways of working are increasingly linked to the concept of hybrid spaces, which are at the epicentre of a process of change that is generating organisations that are much more dynamic and responsible with people and the planet. And the way to address the challenges of the present and the future is to have committed and skilled talent, an advanced digital culture and a suitable, multi-sensory work environment that facilitates meeting current and future challenges.

In this sense, the importance of offices lies in the fact that they support the activity of companies of all kinds, that they are largely responsible for their competitiveness and, more importantly from a human point of view, that they are essential for the well-being of the people who make a project possible.

Thus, hand in hand with social and business evolution, offices have been transforming, adapting to increasingly marked changes in sustainability, communication, wellbeing and digitalisation.

The new office concept of the future

Driving agility, empowerment and competitiveness is essential for a company to keep pace with a changing economic model, but also to contribute to a transformation that never ceases. Companies are constantly looking to the future of their activities, customers and markets, and their workspaces can be no less.

This is why, when addressing the office of the future, the concept is increasingly linked to issues such as the flexible office and the smart office, from the perspective of the three dimensions: the narrative dimension of the office, as a brand experience and corporate culture; the human dimension, as a space where activity takes place; and the operational dimension, focusing above all on new forms of teamwork.

The office should reflect a society committed to its values, its flexibility and its work-life balance. Places where things happen and where design and industry join forces to generate the best possible spaces for the present and for the future.

What the offices of the future will look like

Asking ourselves what the offices of the future will look like is essential in order to lay the foundations for them from the outset. These workspaces will be inseparable from principles such as inclusiveness, sustainability, accessibility and ergonomics. They will have to accommodate different uses, cultures, generations and people through proper management and biophilic design, taking care of lighting, air conditioning, space maintenance and even breakout areas.

These new office trends can be supported by technological solutions, which make it possible to monitor how and when spaces are used, whether they are used correctly, or whether they are up to date from the point of view of resistant, healthy and sustainable materials.

Predominance of collaborative spaces in futuristic offices

To do this, it is essential to focus on the person, on the employee, encouraging teamwork and their involvement in the configuration and reconfiguration of spaces, which may be permanent or temporary. And all the pieces of furniture destined for these spaces must share the same principle of versatility and capacity to adapt to the multitude of situations that arise on a daily basis.

The ergonomic A+S Work chair and the Talent lift and fold table are two options that allow you to redefine a space for different uses, with just a few movements.

This is why solutions such as Qyos acoustic booths, which allow you to concentrate on a report, a call or a meeting, are becoming increasingly important. They become islands of tranquillity in the midst of the hustle and bustle around them.

In that sense, workers must be trained to use these new products and spaces and communities must be created to raise awareness and educate about the value of the work 'tools' available in these environments, such as professional and ergonomic pieces of furniture.

In this sense, spaces must give people the freedom to use them how and when they want, with coherence. Likewise, the equipment that dresses these spaces must be designed applying criteria of sustainability and responsibility to guarantee the maximum possible physical and emotional wellbeing.

An example of how collaboration is giving rise to more dynamic, modern and stimulating spaces is coworking. Versatile spaces where professionals and diverse projects coexist and mutually enrich each other. The Utopicus Paseo de la Habana in Madrid is a good example of this.

New trends in the offices of the future

Actiu's projects reveal its commitment to helping organisations to have physical spaces capable of transmitting corporate culture and values, as well as meeting the needs of the team, their habits and expectations, always based on the premise of design, sustainability and wellbeing.

These principles are reflected in projects such as the Polyteia offices in Berlin, Tpartner Network Services, in collaboration with the interior designer Rosa Colet, and the offices of the Public State Employment Service (SEPE) in the Community of Madrid. Three workspaces in which people - their work, their needs and their wellbeing - are the protagonists.