10 Ideas For Futuristic Office Spaces

Offices have evolved. When you imagine a workspace, gone are the days where you would think of a giant desktop and an employee tied to it. But thanks to the wireless internet, laptops, and tablets, employees are not chained to their desks anymore. Instead, they can move around their space more. The world of work is changing. At the heart of this change is the concept of time, place and technology independence for employees of companies of all sizes, types and locations. The best innovation environments are not created through traditional management channels but are self-organized. What makes an office environment great is different for every company. A lot of it has to do with a company’s culture and how employees there like to work. And the right office environment can set employees up with the right situation and motivation to tackle big, important projects.

Hot-desking

Hot-desking basically means that you have no assigned seating in the office space. Instead, when you come to the office in the morning, you can sit anywhere you please. From open tables or desks to more public spaces like couch and chairs. This only works when a company has to have special spaces in the office that can be easily reconfigured.

The war-room

Rather than having a standard boring meeting room, companies are now innovating the board rooms to innovative physical and virtual spaces called the War-rooms. Space should be both inspiring and act as a hive of organizational thinking. The war room is meant to be a focal point and a structured approach for supporting idea generation or responding to specific issues.

Overlap Zones

Allowing space for overlap zones help encourage spontaneous collaboration among your employees as it’s more likely your employees will run into each other. The most creative ideas aren’t going to come while sitting in front of your monitor. New office spaces should be designed to spark not just collaboration, but that innovation you see when people collide.

Colors

Different colours evoke different emotions. Though we each may have our own “favourite colour,” there are some generalizations that can be made about colour, based on simple observation and experience. Painting and decorating the office in a certain colour has been proven to improve productivity. It improves productivity depending on the type of work each person does. So the productivity can be increased by choosing the right combination of colours for your workplace.

Amenities

Today’s employee is a sophisticated consumer and having specific preferences when it comes to choosing a workplace. Workplace design priorities are shifting from the sheer size of space to amenities, the convenience of location, how the workplace will impact employee health and new innovations in workplace design.

Green Spaces

A workplace should be environmentally sustainable and should promote greater comfort and control for your employees. A green office communicates to employees that their employer cares about them and their welfare and adding plants and greenery in an office can help increase employee productivity by 15%.

Healthy food and spaces

Healthy foods are necessary to keep our body functioning optimally. The first step of building it in our office would be to establish an on-site cafeteria or café area where employees can get a healthy meal. Think lounge seating and occasional tables, bar-height tables and chairs, natural lighting, and wifi connectivity. It becomes a place where people can re-energize with some good food and get some work done too.

A Superdesk

Designing an open office space is one thing but designing a shared desk for your entire office staff is what many companies are doing right now. For employees who want to work in a quieter space or have more private discussions, a super desk becomes a symbol of collaboration and innovation.

Employing technology

A new idea that’s changing the office – quite literally is the use of technology including sensors that physically detect occupancy. When deployed effectively, companies are able to gauge just how much of their space is useful. Companies can optimise the use of space for more effective purposes. Occupancy benchmarking is helping companies access and reduce wasteful spaces, reduce lighting and electricity expenses.

Private yet open spaces

Research indicates that an open office plan is dead. But so is the cubicle. The offices of the future have to strike the right balance that offers space that feels open, yet private. Music is a good way to introduce a sense of privacy. Where people don’t feel like they are being eavesdropped on. Another good way to to create spaces with simple glass partition. Companies have now started incorporating pods and booths so people can get complete privacy when they are on calls or if they have to think.

Office spaces are changing, while the physical structures are becoming more impressive, there are some things that surely boost productivity. The aim of the office of the future isn’t to simply use technology but to create workspaces that encourage people to be more effective at their jobs.