Page 30 - Designing Ways 282

AT THE
OFFICE

At the Office

by Stienie Greyling

one are the days of show up, get
work done, go home, repeat.
GToday, work is flexible and
collaborative and increasingly creative.
Consider trends like remote work, video
conferencing, cloud computing and other
innovative disruptions affecting physical
spaces.
While many companies will end 2024
with smaller offices, others are prioritising
premium office locations equipped with
state-of-the-art designs and technology.
These upgrades are intended to improve
productivity and provide more positive
reinforcement for the decision to come
into the office.

What will the office of the future look
like?
Essentially, employers (and designers)
will aspire to create spaces that people
want to be in. The ultimate office of the
future will be a comfortable, uplifting and
all-round pleasant environment where
employees feel good and can do their best
work.
The point is, the office of the future will
need to be customisable and adaptive. It
will need to be whatever the employee
needs it to be on any given day. Physically
and consistently, the office of the future
will be workable. Think flexible, moveable
partitions and modular furniture that can
be put together in different configurations
and pulled apart again.
At the same time, employees will
increasingly integrate technology, data,
and real-time analytics to monitor how

30 Issue 282 • dw