Personalise Your Office Space In 2020 with Cecil Nurse

It’s been nearly a century since the first open-plan office was designed back in 1939 with the intent to encourage teamwork.  That design consisted of a few white columns, filing cabinets, and oval desks.  Since then, however, the effectiveness of the open-plan office has always encouraged lively debate within the design community.

With productivity being a direct result of an efficient workspace, the discussion around space planning and office design should be important to most businesses.  Inadequate office layouts can have inadvertent repercussions, especially when you have a high concentration of employees and a lack of privacy, which tends to result in a lack of concentration and a strain on teamwork.

Nevertheless, the advent of a new decade has encouraged designers to concur that open-plan office design can, in fact, be an effective model if implemented correctly.  Lack of real estate space, increasing rental costs and a more mobile workforce will push the open office concept as the end-goal.  Collaboration is important for how teams work together.  The workplace as a social landmark is a trend that isn’t going away any time soon.

Creating an effective office ecosystem is the key!  And, in keeping with that, designers forecast a predominant trend in the personalisation of space.  Latest research shows that although 77% of employees still have their own assigned workstation, the vast majority, almost 87% spend at least two to four hours every day working someplace else.

A key component of office design in 2020 will be a push toward greater sustainability. It’s going to become important to show people where materials are sourced and how eco-conscious brands and products can become.  Furthermore, office space should seek to showcase a company’s values.

People want to connect in a more physical way in the workplace, which can be achieved by creating functional collaboration areas – a base in the office where employees can come together without disturbing their colleagues.  Office space designers indicate that there is an increasing focus on creating office spaces that become destinations in which groups of people want to spend time together.

By personalising workspaces, the workflow is streamlined and collaboration amongst teams is improved. Hence the trend of personalising space is not so much about ownership, but more about optimising individual performance in a shared space.

This means creating a space from which employees can freely shift furniture and elements within that space to suit their performance and work style. In other words, it’s important to personalise the office to the tasks, as well as to the employees performing those tasks.

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