Trends for Office Design in 2017
By Anna Tomalik
Trends for Office Design in 2017
By Anna Tomalik
An office design used to be determined by cost efficiency, but now companies realize that the well-being of their employees is far more important in the long haul. Therefore, the design of our offices needs to evolve in response to an employee’s wish to simply feel better at work.
In 2017 office designers will face the challenge to marry a leading open-office style that tires employees out with intimate and quiet nooks which help them concentrate and get things done. The aesthetic of the design will be inspired by nature since people yearn for contact with natural surroundings. Moreover, a trend for creating pleasant home-like areas, such as lounge rooms, library corners, shared kitchen and relaxing spaces will continue.
The Evolution of an Open Office
Open-plan office spaces have been around for almost ten years now. They cost 50% less per employee than more traditional office layouts, therefore companies seem to love them. Also, there is a belief that an open-office setting produces a more collaborative atmosphere because people sit close together.
In recent years, companies started noticing pitfalls of this type of design. A 2014 Swedish study of more than 1,800 employees found that open-plan employees were twice as likely to take sick days as employees in traditional offices. This was likely due to the spread of germs and increased environmental stress of working in an open space. In the study, employees also complained of an inability to focus and were generally less content with their work environment.
As a response to the problem designers started creating more private spaces using table dividers, adapting nooks and crannies for work, designing silent rooms, and putting phone booths inside the offices.
An interesting approach was taken by the Silicon Valley Bank, which doubled the number of chairs per employee giving employees more choices of where and how to work. The designers could follow this example, using a 2-to-1 ratio of sitting places — chairs, sofas, ottomans, to create more space and make it possible for employees to work in intimate corners or in a shared space.
Well-being at the Office Enhanced by Nature
An aesthetic design that uses colors and textures to soothe our senses goes hand in hand with a functional design that improves our open offices. Nothing calms us down better than mother nature herself, thus designers eagerly go back to her for inspiration. Natural hues like gray and green, raw wood, ferns and mosses, glass, and water are being put into the working space nowadays.
During the 2016 ORGATEC trade fair held in Cologne, which is a place for sharing new visions of work, most of the designers presented nature inspired working stations. The furniture is produced from authentic, natural materials like: cotton, canvas, linen, leather with the use of wood or steel.
Flowers and plants burst into our office spaces to help us breathe and reawaken our pure life energy.
And, some bold designers are even ready to arrange our office space in a forest-like way.
Natural colors seem to be the rising trend in an office design because the more our lives get busier and faster, the more we need the surroundings to calm us down and soothe our senses. Pantone recently released the Color of The Year 2017 — Greenery. Green that conjures up our desire to connect to nature: “natural green shade provides the perfect complementary background to the more vibrant tones in the palette” — explain designers at the Pantone Color Institute.
Home-like Areas
In the recent years, our working environment has also evolved from formality to casualness. Lounge rooms, shared kitchens, coffee-house-like areas, library corners, resting zones are places in which employees can spend their office hours depending on their personal needs. With attention paid to details, designers make these spaces comfy just like our homes.
The finishes and details should create a cozy feeling among employees so that they could work in a relaxed state of mind. This could be achieved with the use of pop art posters hanging on the wall or with a free-standing framed canvas placed on the shelf.
A casual vibe that lets people feel “chilled-out” can be gained by motifs of street art in the form of stickers or murals.
Fun and Dynamism at Work
In contrast to quiet, soothing spaces at offices, there is also a trend for creating dynamic, vibrant, creative working zones. These are usually used by designing, sales, or marketing teams for collaborative work. In such spaces people feel energized by bright tones, funny-looking furniture, and toys (yes, toys!).
Ersa, one of the design companies, has just introduced a new line of office furniture called the Carnival. “Let the fun begin in the office!” reads the motto for the furniture series. The goal of the designing team is to bring a festive spirit to the workplace.
A playful space is pleasurable to look at and to be in while calling a creative mojo. It’s a place where new ideas are likely to arise or at least it’s a room that can be used as a mood changer if we’re stuck at our desks for too long.
Useful and Aesthetic Design
The office design in 2017 will follow the wave of changes that has been observed in the working environment in this year. Designers will have to address arising issues with open-office plans and come up with solutions for personal spaces. We have to figure out the way to improve our workplaces by evolving from shared spaces and not moving back to the design that was used ten or twenty years ago.
A useful design will focus on the needs of the users: intimacy, creative space, team workshops, relaxing area, silent rooms. As a complement, an aesthetic design will bring nature-inspired decors, furniture, and art to awaken a pleasant work atmosphere. Our homes and apartments will serve as a springboard for new office ideas. Lounge sofas, comfy armchairs, fireplaces, wall murals, bookshelves, posters, and candles will be seen more often in our office interiors. Hopefully, these will make us happier at work.
The team of open-minded designers at @PIXERS_ works with offices, restaurants, gyms, hotels and the like to bring out a happy vibe from a working space. They use wall murals, window stickers, furniture decals, canvases, and posters. Discover their work at pixers.biz
