Shaping offices of the future

It seems that there is a new trend to reorganize the layout of modern offices. The biggest players build huge offices that are able to accommodate thousands of people.  What should the best offices in the world look like ?

When we look at the donut- like plan of Apple, we can notice that the designer, Mr. Norman Foster, has arranged the offices in such a way as to allow people to interact substantially more than in the past.  He came up with a “circle space”, which does not necessary mean that it eliminates the privacy required for workers to focus on their particular jobs.

What is changing is the former idea that workers should spend all their time behind the desk. It seems that it is not about “hours” any more.  It is more about productivity.  Increased interaction with co-workers helps  to create a brainstorm and find  quicker solutions.

Simultaneously every office should offer a variety of additional spaces and attractions so people could relax and be inspired.  A definite leader in providing attractions would be Google. It allows its workers to boost their energy in a proper way by using many health facilities as well as to join various charities.  At the same time workers efficiency increases even though they can decide how to divide their time between work and leisure.

The BBC office in London also changed its offices layout to provide more meeting and leisure rooms.   This allows intermingling of work and often results in creative meetings with co-workers.   Some research showed that meeting with other workers can help to create new ideas.  This could not be better encouraged than to provide the proper multi- space office design.  The whole idea of an active space could be also achieved by moving or changing furniture. There is a big opportunity for furniture designers to present  their skills by creating furniture units, appliances and equipment that could be connected to each other or divided upon request.

We are curious to see the new interiors of the biggest offices to come.

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