Commercial Office Design Trends to Watch in 2021 and Beyond

Since the pandemic had sent us home last year, a slew of modifications has been made to office buildings to protect against the spread of the virus. Now, as businesses prepare to bring employees back, experts say even more changes are on the way. Gone are the boundless rows of cubicles that made some of us feel like rats in a cage. Today, these traditional office layouts have been replaced by expansive layouts, vibrant colours, and natural materials and lighting. 

A completely revamped office space seems to drive a profound effect on employees' productivity, happiness, and creativity in modern offices everywhere. But that's not all. This shift from closed to open office space design is also a significant factor for customers who visit their modern work of architectural and design art. 

How about you? How do you go about transitioning from a more traditional, closed office layout to a new, modern office space?

Follow the Three Cs: Creativity, Collaboration and Communication

The three Cs of business – creativity, collaboration, and communication – are a set of behaviours that all CEOs strive to promote in their organizations. The idea is that when the three Cs spread throughout a corporation's way of doing things, the result is high-quality work. 

There are many ways business owners and managers can stimulate creativity, collaboration, and communication, but nothing is more effective than the environment in which teams spend most of their time. 

For instance, you can boost creativity by incorporating bright colours into your design elements. For some lucky creative organizations, the day of dull cubicle spaces in offices are long gone – they've quickly realized that inspiring surroundings can directly affect their teams' creativity. People need something to stir their senses. Whether it's a theme that splashes vivid tones here and there or a theme that extends throughout your office, a bright colour tone can stir everyone's creative juices and help them work better. 

Similarly, you can promote communication and collaboration through the arrangement of furniture, desk, and technology. So far, it goes without saying that private offices and cubicles no longer lend themselves to the type of communication and collaboration that modern organizations are looking for. 

Office Design for Good Mental Health

In addition to promoting the three Cs, modern office layouts should also serve to reduce anxiety and stress. 

For instance, industrial design elements – such as unfinished stone, exposed metal, and sharp coroners -have their place as an aesthetic. However, too much of it could give your team members the sense that they're working in a much larger machine. Industrial elements are appealing for some, but for those suffering from anxiety and stress, industrial elements might just leave them in distress – one that can affect their work productivity. 

As such, they are incorporating elements of nature into the office layout that can offer a significant boost to employees' mental wellbeing. For instance, wooden materials and plants have been shown to reduce anxiety and stress. The positive outcomes of biophilic design seem to extend through other facets of the workplace – in modern office spaces, the incorporation of natural elements such as green walls and an abundance of plants are meant to clean the air for a healthy indoor climate.

In combination with a carbon-neutral energy system and improved ventilation that hinders the transmission of airborne pathogens, biophilic design is a sustainable way to improve air quality and skyrocket the team's alertness and cognitive ability. 

The easiest and most effective ways to incorporate biophilic design in your office are: 

• Natural materials like stone and wood

• Natural light through glass ceiling or windows 

• Running water like streams, fountains, or waterfalls 

• Natural landscapes through windows or even via pictures and paintings

Allow for Variety and Flexibility 

As a result of the technology we all use on a daily basis, life work has somehow managed to be more flexible. Smartphones, laptops, and tablets mean that there is no need for teams to be tied to the same office desk, all day, every day. This made many organizations realize that there can be greater freedom in the ways offices are utilized and designed. 

As leading companies explore flexible work policies, allowing the team to choose their locations and hours, the modern environment will also need to be flexible to adapt easily to the changes in how and where employees work, as well as varying business circumstances. 

Modern workplaces will embrace multi-use space that promotes variety in people and diverse types of activities. Furnishings will easily move thanks to modern telehandlers to allow spaces to expand and managers to support distancing needs or simply lodge different-size activities and groups. Online and physical experiences will be easily linked to promoting shared collaboration as teams operate in a variety of locations. 

Seamless Technology Incorporation 

As mixed home/office working remains a norm during 2021 and beyond, there will be a major focus on both workplace and remote workers having access to the software and tools that make the interaction between remote workers and office-based workers a seamless stress-free one.

Goodbye, poor internet connection and abandoned video calls. This is a loss of productivity, and as people continue to work together on tasks and projects, technology needs to promote this, and by this, we mean the creation of high-tech meeting rooms with video conferencing amenities that can be understood by everyone, not just skilled IT personnel. 

Not everyone is a technology expert, but it's worth asking the internet for office technology trends to better understand what is possible and what is being developed. For instance, there is an increased demand for pods and small spaces that leverage video conference calls in private. 

But completely tech-equipped rooms for video conference isn't all – organizations strive for a team meeting zone, where members of different teams within the company can meet one by one, maybe another space for focused work and heavy thinking, or a collaboration room where teams can bounce ideas off each other.