ICON Tower, Monterrey, Mexico – Indoor greenery for air purification and beneficial natural features.
In this article from Paadiran, the office equipment design company, join us to explore the features of workspaces that promote a healthy life and the principles of future workplace design in 2021.
**Future Workplace Design in 2021**
Touran Doda and Jeff Pein have shared their insights on how, in 2021, we can focus more on the quality of workspaces rather than quantity. As 2021 approaches, both employers and employees are seeking fresh and suitable perspectives for designing their future workplaces. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant changes—such as prioritizing employee health and safety as they return to the office—many of the measures implemented during the pandemic, which influenced workplace design, still remain in place.
Factors Influencing Future Workplace Design
Generational shifts, technological advancements, mobile tools, and the importance of attracting and retaining top talent continue to shape workplaces. However, today, the focus on designing for flexibility, health, and sustainability has increased. Many wonder whether the demand for office spaces has decreased due to remote work and the need for greater physical distancing among employees. As a result, the demand for space is being influenced by two opposing forces. Instead, the emphasis is shifting toward the quality of spaces and creating workspaces that promote a healthy life, rather than simply focusing on quantity. In fact, the key question is: “How can we create offices that support a healthy lifestyle?”
ICON Tower, Monterrey, Mexico – Two-story loft spaces featuring indoor greenery, fully equipped and independent meeting areas, and abundant natural light.
Healthy Workspaces for the Future
Developers are seeking to create transformative, forward-looking, and multifunctional offices. Workplaces and design types that incorporate these features, along with underutilized urban and suburban areas, offer great opportunities to capture the imagination of office tenants. These tenants are increasingly looking for new design strategies that prioritize safety, security, flexibility, health, and access to outdoor spaces.
Many office tower projects are emerging as part of new “lifestyle” centers, incorporating high-density residential and retail spaces. Together, these elements help revive the spirit of downtown areas while being less car-oriented compared to previous growth patterns.
**Reviewing Healthy Workspace Projects**
In this context, a project has been carried out that rethinks the use of a larger space than typically allocated for the elevator core, which is traditionally located at the center of the tower. In this new project, high-rise and low-rise elevators are separated, and a 60-foot-wide interior loft space with expansive north and south views is placed at the center of the building.
With this approach, the elevator lobby became a hub for collaboration, and conference and meeting rooms were centralized in a two-story, 60-foot-wide loft space for each building tenant. The benefits of this configuration reflect new thinking regarding workplace standards, including controlled access, air quality, and ventilation.
Cox Central Tower, Atlanta, Georgia – Abundant outdoor greenery provides excellent opportunities for promoting health and creating suitable spaces for gatherings.
**Space Zoning in the Future Workplace**
By prioritizing employee health and safety from the very beginning of workplace design, as well as minimizing and controlling movement and circulation on each floor, exposure to the coronavirus can be significantly reduced. The aforementioned two-story lofts include fully glazed and partitioned spaces, each equipped with a high-quality, independent air purification system and operable windows for fresh air circulation.
**Interior Spaces of the Office Workplace**
Within such a space, ten or more people can meet in the safest and healthiest area of the building. For example, an office suite on the 40th floor allows clients and colleagues to enter the lobby through a touchless automated gate. The elevator takes them directly to their destination floor, which is completely independent from other areas, and the incoming air is filtered before entering the room.
Visitors in this area meet their intended contacts under highly controlled conditions. They never encounter other individuals working on that floor and exit the building using the same elevator they arrived in.
Cox Center in Atlanta, Georgia – Outdoor amenities give employees a sense of complete control over their environment and how they work in the office.
**Future Workplace Design Strategies**
Personal experience in returning to the office confirms this design strategy. For one-on-one meetings, critical decision-making, and generating design ideas, it is essential to ensure that teams can gather safely. Specific spaces have been designated for these meetings, including two large conference rooms and a section of the studio. Only designated team members enter these spaces, and they also exit the building directly from a designated area.
In this way, no office employee passes through areas where others enter or leave their workstations. Members of different project teams rarely interact in person, and when they do, they follow distancing protocols and wear masks while communicating.
Duke University Student Wellness Center, Durham, North Carolina – Garden-facing terraces create a sense of connection with nature and have positive health impacts on employees.
**Examples of Healthy Workspaces**
Currently, controlled circulation has been implemented at the Winter Park Health and Wellness Center in Florida. Debbie Watson, Executive Vice President of the Winter Park Health Foundation, commented on how the center operated during the pandemic: “We created four different entrances to the building, which has allowed us to control where each individual enters.”
We recommend reading the article “Working Well: Designing Office Workspaces for Mental Health” on the blog of Paadiran Office Equipment Design Company.
For clinics, gyms, and other dedicated spaces, separate pathways have been designated within the building, each including distinct areas for pre-screening.
Winter Park Health & Wellness Center, Florida – Easy access to fresh air is essential for a healthy office environment.
**Green Interiors in Workplace Design**
Over the past several years, outdoor spaces such as green terraces and gardens have always been a part of workplace design. In more recent projects, gardens and greenery are being brought indoors as well. The importance of indoor green spaces in future workplace design goes beyond helping to purify indoor air—it is primarily valued for the sense of calm and relaxation it provides.
In the loft-centered designs mentioned above, each floor opens up to a green space. These vertical green elements are integrated through the building’s V-shaped core at designated locations. Beautiful and spacious outdoor terraces are also among the project’s most pleasant spaces.
**Benefits of Incorporating Green Spaces in the Workplace**
The use of accessible green spaces in buildings is increasing day by day. According to Paadiran, the office equipment design company, connecting the workplace to green spaces, using natural and eco-friendly materials, and implementing strategies that allow daylight to penetrate deep into the building’s interior, enhance sustainability features and foster a sense of connection with nature among employees, while also ensuring their health and well-being.
Winter Park Health & Wellness Center, Florida – One of the four entrances to the Health & Wellness Center.
Healthy Building Systems in Offices Suitable for the Work Environment
Offices designed for healthy living in the future also benefit from the monthly replacement of the building’s HVAC system filters with MERV 13–rated filters by the property owner. Paying close attention to building systems that directly impact employee health reflects the importance mechanical engineers place on health considerations within the overall design equation.
These specialists rapidly develop sophisticated strategies for virus-free environments, water quality, air quality, fresh air intake, and comprehensive building health programs by configuring standard, cost-effective, and efficient systems. This approach shifts the common perception that implementing healthy and sustainable systems is excessively expensive and that enforcing air-quality protocols is overly complex. Instead, validation of a health-focused approach in design will become one of the next booming industries, as clients seek assurance of quality in the design of future work environments.
Winter Park Health and Wellness Center, Florida — The health and wellness center includes four separate entrances, enabling effective control of user access.
Essential Considerations in Healthy Building Design
Today, **WELL certification** is the leading tool for advancing significant health outcomes in building and workplace design. WELL establishes performance standards for design interventions, operational protocols, and policies based on the latest scientific research, and it is expected to evolve into a mainstream system, much like the trajectory of **LEED**.
Winter Park Health and Wellness Center, Florida — Natural light penetrates a shared space furnished with movable furniture and natural materials in the health and wellness center.
Safety and Security in Workplace Design
Padiran Office Furniture Design Company believes that one of the major concerns regarding employee health and wellness in designing offices suitable for the workplace is distinguishing between visitors and employees. Companies are revising policies to prevent unauthorized access, control visitor entry, and pre-screen all individuals. Some organizations have expanded pre-screening requirements, allocating temporary spaces to ensure that all employees are health-checked and consistently monitored in accordance with contact-tracing protocols.
Temporary spaces have been designated for screening, but future needs may require more permanent solutions. It is conceivable that, in the future, entry systems similar to cleanrooms—featuring airlocks and controlled inlet and outlet filters—could become standard. Many countries already use cameras for temperature detection, and this technology may become more cost-effective for implementation in primary access pathways.
NCR Center, Atlanta, Georgia — The facilities at the new NCR center include a large elevated green space, easily accessible from both towers in the area.
Emerging Trends in Office Design
The behavior and expectations of today’s employees have shifted. Everyone wants to be responsible in preventing the spread of viruses and illnesses. Remember, people initially resisted wearing seatbelts, but now buckling up when getting into a car is completely natural. Similarly, experts anticipate more frequent outbreaks like COVID-19, meaning that over time, the COVID experience may become normalized. Technology and innovations have advanced to address these challenges, making discussions and negotiations about such conditions in the near future easier and more seamless.
Post-COVID Challenges in the Future Workplace
Much of the conversation has focused on the impact of online learning on students, but we are witnessing a challenging situation when it comes to onboarding and training new hires. Remote work negatively affects these critical stages of employment as well as each company’s ability to build and maintain its culture. New employees are deprived of the opportunity to learn “on the job” as it naturally occurs in the workplace. The spontaneous learning and exchanges that take place in a physical office have now been lost, so in 2021 we aimed to generate new insights on how to reunite safely and effectively in the workplace.
Stay connected with Padiran Office Furniture Design Company to explore the latest technologies and principles in workplace design.
Source: WorkDesign
