The most compelling workplaces employ the wide variety of spaces individuals may need throughout a workday with protocols that allow all employees to use all the spaces. The most exciting trend in this arena is the move to activity-based working where effective solo seats for heads down focus work, outfitted
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1. One’s every need
collaborative spaces that support hybrid teams, and team spaces that support both intense brainstorming and deep focus are all part of a menu of spaces available for all office workers.Combined with a policy that encourages employees to easily move around to find the best setting for whatever they are doing, this new workplace
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1. One’s every need
this new workplace provides real flexibility in combination with when and where to work and with policies and protocols that encourage it.
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2. Easy physical change
An effective workplace is one that can be physically reconfigured by the people who use it. Starting with a modular approach to all the building systems including the planning module itself, but also the ceiling systems like lighting and sprinklers, building systems increasingly supported through the floor like HVAC, data, and
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2. Easy physical change
power, and the walls and furniture that live in the zone between the floor and ceiling—all working together in a way that can allow the users to easily tailor the space to their very specific needs. A team space can be created from solo seats, meeting rooms can reconfigure into private offices as a day can go from intense brainstorming to heads-
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2. Easy physical change
down work, and it’s the users themselves that can make the change because the systems are planned to allow it.
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3. Flex with the organization
The number of employees “in the office” continue to be dynamic for many organizations. Driven not only by pandemic response, but increasingly by employee choices of when and where to work, the workplace needs to accommodate many employees with effective places to collaborate, socialize, and focus, but also needs to
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3. Flex with the organization
work with just a few employees without feeling like the Saturday Syndrome: “No one is here and I wish I didn’t need to be either!”Amenity-rich base building components like food, fitness, and connections to the neighborhood and the outdoors, landlord-provided service functions—reception and security, “client-ready”
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3. Flex with the organization
meeting and conference spaces, social and gathering spaces, even flexible lease arrangements that can allow a company to take more or less space at a moment’s notice—these are all part of a new paradigm for defining best-in-class office buildings.