Covid19 Secure Office Design?

The future of office design was heading from cubicles to open-plan layouts as well the ability to reconfigure the space. Both open plan environments and reconfigurable furniture are in trend to encourage collaboration between co-workers. Research shows actual evidence that the physical environment influences interactions between people. It can interfere with or encourage the frequency and quality of social interactions. Taking all these elements into account it seems like common sense to move into the design direction we were headed before 2020 entered the game…

With a pandemic that requires social distancing, the previous ideas can be quite unobtainable, and reverse us back to isolated cubicles. So the question is can we find a way around it?

While with cubicles socially distancing is solved, the feeling of isolation from home office to this is not the most motivating idea.

A solution though could be panels and personal pods. This way we could have some walls yet still have an open-plan environment. With personal pods, we could have our very close personal space protected from everyone else, but with a swirl of a chair, we could face the open-plan environment with many possible social interactions.

The same outcome could be achieved with panels, creating only a corner for everyone instead of isolating them fully from their surroundings or offering a boundary between desks, this way providing a private work surface for each individual yet allowing collaboration.

We of course can work with you to look at how the design of your furniture in the space could work around both the Pandemic’s restriction and enabling a collaborative office.