The COVID storm has subsided, and the epidemic waves, which were once as powerful as force 12, have now almost diminished to null. Today, it's high time to discuss how office design has evolved and embrace a modern style of work.

Let's take a moment to reflect on the past two years and trace the shifts in our lives. Human behavior unpredictably oscillated from unfathomable panic to indignation and defiance of any rules. While people hesitated to venture outside and avoided society, the business sphere had to adapt. The priority in life shifted towards the health of our loved ones, and the necessity to preserve well-being has become a primary criterion in job selection.

As a design studio and employer simultaneously, we have identified three main categories in office design today.

Post-COVID Office

The main goal when creating or renovating a space according to new standards is to instill confidence in employees regarding their safety and health by equipping the office with special technologies and adjusting the planning solution.

The methods are familiar to all of you:

• floor markings
• increased distance between workstations
• protective partitions
• touchless hand sanitizers, etc.

In our opinion, these measures may not have a profound impact on business processes and could even fade from our lives at some point. The next two types of offices are probably more promising, and the number of people using them is increasing every day.

Home Office

Long-term remote work is no longer an amorphous concept with an image of a freelancer sitting with a laptop on the couch. Nowadays, working at home presupposes a fully equipped and soundproof workplace.

Do you remember a sheet of paper on a door saying, 'Do not come in! Father is working!'? Many of you have been on a meeting call when, in the one-room apartment, children were grimacing or crying in the background.

What a short and magical way from the bedroom to the home office through the kitchen – sounds very comfortable to many of us, although working from home is not a perfect solution, and it's not suitable for everyone, certainly not for everyone all the time.

For some employees, working at home is quite good and is suitable for them depending on their position, personality types, or lifestyle. In this case, the task of the employer and HR department is to help organize a comfortable workplace at home. Some companies organize centralized furniture procurement - ergonomic work chairs and desks for employees. It's crucial to realize that you can work on a kitchen stool for a month or two, but such a working style for two years or longer is impossible.

Hybrid Office

For many organizations, the spring of 2022 set a new goal – to bring people back to the office after two years of remote work, taking into consideration several failed attempts before. Have you read about Elon Musk's experience?

Three out of five leaders will tell you that managing a virtual team is difficult.

It should be mentioned that even before the pandemic, some companies employed different types of collaboration for their employees. Are the words "mobile, agile, hoteling" familiar to you? Perhaps it was not available to the majority of us to allow themselves a day or two a week to work from a cafe or in the countryside. Managers mostly used this approach to reward employees for outstanding achievements or when meeting KPIs.

What do we look like today? Not only have processes, logistics, and interactions changed, but also the reasons for returning to the office. "Personal interaction with my team/colleagues" has become, in most cases, the main reason to return to the office, irrespective of the business sphere or age.

The hybrid type of work reduces the need for endless office space. Some companies try to save funds by reducing space, while others find a balance by dedicating most of the office to informal areas to improve communication and social ties among teams. Today, interaction and negotiation zones are expanding and occupy up to 40% of office space, forming an internal co-working space where employees who work in the office every day can meet and interact with people who work remotely.

So, what does this transition to a more hybrid lifestyle mean for the workplace, amenities, neighborhoods, and cities?

Here, it's important to understand that the hybrid type of work affects not only the office or your home but also public spaces. Coffee houses, libraries, parks, and other places play an important role in the new workplace ecosystem. People want to be able to answer a call from a cafe, connect to Wi-Fi in the park, or work for a couple of weeks in a house in the forest. At the same time, the efficiency and quality of work should not deteriorate.

We see how our clients adapt to new conditions, and all these changes lead to experimenting with new forms of work. The field of office design is poised for a new stage of development where office interaction and spaces for these purposes will play a leading role.

The Tengo team is ready to create an agile and comfortable office that will correspond to all your company's needs, grow with your team, and be the right place for inspiration, communication, and great perspectives.