Traditional vs Activity Based Working Offices
A short story.
For the past 60 years or more the traditional approach to design an office was to have rows of desks or cubicles like in the illustration below. This concept was originally based on the manufacturing industry's approach to work-flows on the factory floor.
These rows of workers were often supervised by managers in offices, or worse still on raised platforms. Here's a recent existing layout for a client that we were asked to review, that illustrates the regimented approach.
The reason for the very high ratio of individual workspaces to collaboration /meeting spaces in a traditional office design was based on the principle of paper and computer working consuming most of workers' daily activities. This meant workers came to the office five days a week to be productive, as that was where the paper/computer was located. The design is therefore aligned to focus work and traditional paper/desk-based activities.
With the introduction of cloud computing and the internet in the mid 1990’s, along with machine learning, automated software, video conferencing, and now most recently AI, the types of work activities undertaken in the office have radically changed.
Yet the design of the office often lags years behind technological innovations
The previous paper and desktop computer work has over the past 10 years largely been replaced with person-to-person interactions. Being with other employees is now the main reason employees need to come to the office, rather than person to paper, or person to computer activities.
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This radical change requires a rethink in the way offices are designed – now linking the design to the wider range of in-person activities. The broader range of furniture worksettings as seen in the image above, are aligned to this modern way of in-office working – enabling opportunities for greater and improved person-to-person collaboration and recognizing the need for less focus work.
In the images below we can compare the different activity zones between the old traditional approach and the modern activity based working (ABW) approach to creating flexible workplaces that enable better employee productivity.
Reviewing the images above you can see how the broader range of furniture worksettings are distributed around the office floor, based on team needs yet providing overall flexibility for the occupying teams.?
If you study the before and after illustrations, you’ll note that for your existing open office arrangements, making the change does not necessarily mean having to carry out major construction works.?
In many use cases we have minimized that cost as most of the work settings can be created using modular or systems furniture.? This means that the transformation of the space can be very cost effective, and in some cases even redeploying some of the existing furniture items.
The overall advantages of modernising your office using the ABW approach is that it better enables employees to work, it provides a much more vibrant, and interactive workplace experience and, where arrangements such as hybrid working are adopted, it can significantly reduce the amount of office space needed.
We have created a simple assessment tool, which is free to use, to assess the suitability of your current offices, the link is below. Alternatively, do reach out for a chat to discuss your next project.
Fractional Real Estate, Facilities, and Project Management
3 周Excellent article based on solid research! Bravo!
Sr. Project Manager, Facilities & I.T. Infrastructure at Delta Dental of California
1 个月Your ABW design may work for some but it all appears very random and chopped up. Is this design for on-site/RTO or Hybrid workers? We use a hierarchial space type approach when designing our new hybrid workplaces where high level space types are logically placed on the floor and focus work spaces are separated from active zones.
??Founder & CEO @Southcoast Design Group & @San Diego Office Design. Partner | coach @Design Coach Collective. ??Interior Design & Furniture for Commercial Spaces ??Workplace ??Multi-Family ??Student Housing ??Hotel
1 个月We just completed redesigning a 'typical' 35,000 square foot office into a planned design of working 'neighborhoods' with many small, medium and larger sized meeting rooms, zoom rooms, brainstorming spaces and community areas in between. Id say that the client was extremely receptive to new ways of thinking about how works get done, and thats so important to making these types of changes a success. The furniture and layout are the beginning but the cultural changes have to be supported by the internal team, along with the belief that new ways of working are worth investing in.
Assistant Director & Principal Analyst | Fostering the Digital Work State Experience to Facilitate Employee Flexibility and Engagement to Sustainably Connect Talent and Technology
1 个月I like the idea of the office as a network of smart places. There are great studies about enhancing performance by aligning spaces with work modes and work tasks.
Work EX Ecosystem: designing work EX as a business strategy.
1 个月As industries, CRE and office furniture have done exceptionally poor jobs in leading these conversations. Many work hard at it, but the evidence is clear. Office furniture has barely grown in 25 years; CRE is not exactly a growth industry. The need is there. The information is there. The stories are even there. Whatever is leading to poor results - designers, architects, clients, etc - the value proposition is not clear.