The Future of Workplace - A Design Strategy
This raging pandemic has ensured that around the world, the workplace establishments would need to adopt innovative strategies to facilitate return to the workplace. Today, COVID-19 has pushed the architects & workplace strategists to push the envelope, in order to ensure not only productivity at the workplace, but also physical and emotional wellbeing of the occupants. The beginning of this year was marked by a surge in the spread of the novel Coronavirus across the globe; post which all the major economies of the world witnessed various levels of lock-down, quarantine and work from home protocols.
Emerging concerns in business circles
Excerpts from a study published in the initial months of the pandemic by Ernst & Young, based on a survey, showed a paradigm shift in workplace strategy trends, influenced by the governmental measures to tackle the on-going pandemic all over the world. Whilst, 73% of the executives surveyed expected the COVID-19 outbreak to have a severe impact on the global economy; 72% believed that their companies were going through transformation. This shows that, in the future we should base the workplace design strategy on agility, flexibility & resilience. Also, the survey indicated that over 50% of the executives were hopeful for a U-shaped recovery of the global economy. They believed that the companies would have to reconfigure their business methods in order to sustain and grow. While three sectors namely, automotive & transportation, advanced manufacturing and consumer services were believed to have been adversely affected, some sectors namely, media & entertainment, power & utilities and real estate construction were believed to have been impacted differently.
Several such studies undertaken to gauge the impact of the pandemic on the industry echo similar sentiments. While various enterprises agree that work from home is required at the moment to curb the spread of Coronavirus, the return to the physical workplace is inevitable, owing to the complexities associated with working in various sectors. Also, many surveys have shown that there are still a large number of people who prefer working from traditional offices than from home. One of the major takeaways is that the enterprises would have to instill confidence in its employees through a reconfigured spatial strategy and informed workplace design standards. The industry demands design solutions with increased emphasis on employee health & wellness while ensuring a productive and collaborative workplace. The key to the foundation of the future workplace shall be virtual connectivity & networking along with a flexible spatial strategy.
Defining “The New Normal”
“The New Normal”, in a workplace post pandemic is to ensure social distancing in every functional space inside the building envelope. Integration of public thermal screening & monitoring systems with the central Building Management System (BMS) is an essential strategy. Sanitisation decks at crucial points like entrances, not only for the vehicles and personnels, but also for the delivered packages shall ensure a check on the spread of the virus. Increased connectivity through improved networking, along with the provision of high capacity data-centres shall provide the required day to day flexibility of meeting cyclic staffing requirements. Reducing touch points in a building by adopting touchless systems is a more hygienic and effective way to control the spread of diseases in a workplace. Innovative space types with reduced dependency of mechanical ventilation, while ensuring physical distancing, can help in making people feel at home, thereby boosting productivity. Provision of UV disinfection systems in ducts & airways have become absolutely mandatory in ducted mechanical ventilation and air conditioning systems to prevent quick contamination of the workplace, should there be an unfortunate spread in the building.
More emphasis shall be laid on providing space types promoting wellness, like yoga rooms & meditation rooms, to promote mental and physical well being among the workforce. Lastly, it is not only important to ensure hygiene standards through design solutions but also through dedicated operational strategies, like frequent sanitisation and disinfection of touch points.
The emergence of coronavirus has proven to us that the global economy is fragile. Today, not only is the health and safety of the human race at risk, but also there is a considerable increase in the number of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition (Global Hunger Index 2020). As Architects, we can have a positive influence on global workplace trends, through informed decisions, to ensure that the economy recovers while guaranteeing a healthier, collaborative and productive workforce.