Future of Work and Offices
Five days a week, 9 to 5, always in the office? After the pandemic, the way we work changed forever. Across the world, we have been forced to rethink workspaces, their use and purpose. Today, companies already have a more decentralized, independent and flexible way of working. If there were any doubts regarding the new forms of interaction between teams, they were cleared.
New Paradigm
The period in which we work from home has accelerated the digitalization of the relationship between teams and work. This transformation was reflected in the way we perceive offices: a new trend of using workspace took root as a sharing space that could also be used for other purposes. This reality has opened the door to greater autonomy in managing time spent between the traditional office and home office.
Office as a Service
The decentralization of the office, combined with the need to balance the adaptability of space and long-term investment, drove an evolution of the office business model. This may include: greater flexibility in the type of contracts signed, new models such as office as a service, with the occupation of shared spaces or even with the rental of an office and/or the provision of spaces to third parties. The “co” movement continues to gain traction, as can be seen by the spread of different cowork spaces.
Outside the Cities
The digitalization of work will increase the demand for spaces outside city centers, which represent lower sales or rental prices per m² and a greater balance between cost and quality of life. The typology of spaces sought will also undergo changes, due to the different functions they may assume: social, creative, collaborative.
As we increasingly prioritize the health and well-being dimension at work, the demand for more airy and bright spaces will increase, with larger common areas for both team work and social moments.
Office in office
The office business can evolve into an office-in-office concept, as happened in retail, where the space-sharing model is increasingly seen with concepts such as shop-in-shop. In retail, this global trend has been manifested for years with the growth of concept stores or partnerships between brands, such as FNAC with an integrated Eric Kayser café, Auchan with a Decathlon space or H&M with brand corners with complementary activities, such as florist, cafe, among others.
Therefore, we expect the decentralization of offices to increase in the future, based on the binomial between the company’s headquarters and satellite spaces – temporary, shared – closer to each person’s home.
