Our new obsession with office space

There’s a tent in the centre of Hootsuite’s office. Actually, there’s a string of them at the social media management platform’s headquarters – green canvas tents all in a row filled with employees puttering away on MacBooks or chatting on phones.

It’s set up like the Vancouver-based company’s staff has travelled through time to a ski cabin retreat in the summer of 1965. Except this is the day-to-day work environment – plaid couch cushions, log cabin-like walls strung with antique skis, snowshoes, fishing gear, picnic tables, wood stacks and cots for sleepy employees.

It’s unreal, unconventional and quite possibly the coolest office space in Canada. It’s also a prime example of the evolving approach to designing the workplace, says Susan Steeves, principal interior designer at SSDG Interiors, the firm responsible for Hootsuite’s offbeat office.

“People spend a lot of time at work so you want to like where you are – the space creates different feelings, people react (differently) within their space,” says Steeves. “More and more business owners and executives are realizing space is not just an expense, you can spend some money and really see some returns.”

And the fascination with workspaces continues to grow.

Last week serial entrepreneur Kevin Ryan launched Kontor, a searchable office space database. The website acts like a Pinterest of sorts, connecting users with the products and designers that make the offices of hip companies like LinkedIn and Skype pop.

Ella Mamiche, principal of interiors for Toronto-based firm ZAS Architects + Interiors, points out that while tech companies and sports marketing companies tend to be leading the way, it’s part of a wider trend geared-towards luring Millennials.

“Millenials are not necessarily working for money, they look for a place they will enjoy working,” says Mamiche. “They are very much interested in wellbeing, healthy environments, healthy bodies, and creativity.”

Mamiche and Steeves weighed in on the elements designers are using to reshape the way people work.

Flexibility

Having a variety of spaces for people to work seems to top the list.

“If you look at the Hootsuite photos, there are little tents and concentrated spaces – nooks and crannies you can go to work quietly,” says Steeves. While Hootsuite went with the tent approach to keep the cabin-y vibe, other offices set up “cellphone rooms” with doors for employees to go and make a call or focus on static, head-down work undisturbed.

But savvy industrial designers are flooding the market with new concepts to soup up offices.

“I saw a concept chair with what look liked the old fashioned hair drying thing; something you could lower down if you had a call to make with speakers and lights,” adds Mamiche. “I thought it was brilliant because you don’t need to build a space, it’s just a lounge chair with a canopy.”

Sitting is the new smoking

Steeves points out that there’s also been a shift towards flexibility in the desk space itself.

“The current movement is sitting is the new smoking,” she says. “We need to change our posture, we can’t sit for 8 hours a day.”

For frugally focused companies, dropping $500 plus on a sit-stand desk for every employee is unfeasible. Instead, designers like Steeves and Mamiche will turn storage cabinets into sit-stand stations with laptop plug-ins where employees can work for a couple hours before moving on to their next cubby.

“It’s about flexibility, having one space do more than one thing,” adds Mamiche.

Congregate

Taking a cue from freelancer-favoured coffee shop works spaces, some companies have tried to inject a little bit of that spirit into their own lunch rooms.

“The lunchroom used to be a dark room on the inside that was kind of small and people would go to get a coffee and store their lunch,” says Steeves. These days, lunchrooms have become large, open spaces with windows, amenities and a variety of zones and seating so employees can have meetings there.

“It gets used throughout the day instead of just from 12 to one,” she adds.

Au natural

Wellbeing has also found its way into the upper echelon of design elements.

In March, a report by Human Spaces – which examines the global impact of biophilic, natural and environment-conscious design – found employees working in environments with natural elements have a 15 per cent higher level of well being, are six per cent more productive and 15 per cent more creative.

“Light is really important,” says Mamiche. “There are also artificial light manufacturers creating light systems that react to the cycle of the day and imitate outside light.”

Get fit while you copy

Companies have also started to re-jig placement of essential services like copying stations to help inspire fitness.

“I remember our clients who were asking us to assess how many copy rooms should be on a floor to minimize walking distance for workers,” says Mamiche. “Now the trend is the opposite, centralized coffee and copy services to encourage people to walk.”

Even the stairs are being re-envisioned.

“Rather than have fire escape stairs used for connecting floors, we are designing spaces with interconnecting, nice comfortable stairs which are visible so they encourage people to use them rather than take the elevator two floors up or down,” adds Mamiche pointing to the Adidas office ZAS recently designed.

The Death of Cubicles

With the free-flow of new ideas to disrupt the old office model there are several elements that have become passé. Even relatively new trends have run their course, says Steeves, pointing to something she calls the “nobody gets an office” extreme.

“There’s a more of an understanding that some people do need a private office because they really are doing confidential work like the HR, finance and legal departments,” says Steeves. “But I think that’s one element we will continue to struggle with.”

Either way, Mamiche doesn’t see a resurgence cubicle trend.

“We’re not going back to cubicles – no one wants (them),” she says.

Instead, the future of office design will be hinged upon flexible, wellness-conscientious workplaces ready to adapt to their changing workforce.

“To find a balance between life and work, you almost bring some attributes of home into the workplace,” says Mamiche. “that way, the nine to five attitude doesn’t have to exist because you are enjoying work.”