Modern Office Design Ideas & Trends: From Corporate Fit-Outs to Creative, Wellbeing-Focused Workspaces
Office design has progressed beyond corporate fit-out styles; more creative, more eclectic, and more residential-feeling office designs are the trend. What do these office interior styles achieve for the organisation and the individual?
The traditional corporate office that’s been in place seemingly since the late 1980s is no longer prevalent. No more white desks, goodbye steel and glass; these days we’re craving new vistas within the workplace. Just a small proportion of employers opt for a “traditional” office interior when choosing an office design style. Our clients report a move from corporate environments such as desk-centric layouts and meeting rooms, collab pods and breakout spaces, to natural havens, experimental zones, and residential dens. Third spaces must be an experience, not just an alternative.
Office design trends have moved beyond the corporate office experience and business-like settings to eclectic, expressive, and home-inspired design themes. Office design companies such as Fusion Office Design are receiving design briefs including tranquil sanctuaries connected to nature, with the ability to work dynamically and to feel inventive and imaginative. Modern office design must cater for workers to make connections, to foster productivity, and form a sense of well-being.
Facilities That are an Important Part of Office Design
The ranked importance of office design features most wished-for, beyond individual workplace and meeting rooms.
- Café, refreshment
- Working café or coworking zone
- Lounge space
- Recharge/relax space
- Individual focus area, not at a desk
- Separate focus room
- Exterior working space
- Video conference room
- Research area
- Fitness and well-being facility
- Dedicated team/project room
- Innovation lab
- Group activity space
- Touchdown adjacent to colleagues
Variation by Industry
Design and facility preferences can vary by industry. Professional occupations such as insurance or financial services, law firms and central government favour a more corporate environment. Others including scientific and research, media, and business services tend to place more emphasis on creative office spaces which are styled and fitted out to be experimental or imaginative. Nature-blended facilities that connect to the outdoors are a strong favourite with FMCG industry workers. Surprisingly Non-Profit office staff often state that a residential or a “home-from-home” design theme is highly desirable. Less of a surprise is that tech staff tend to want all amenities… a design-fest.
It’s also noteworthy that any difference by age or generation don’t come across in the design brief. Despite media attention on Gen Z vs. Millennials vs. Boomers, with values and ways of working ever changing and adapting, the sought-after experience-led workplace design is a common thread throughout generations.
The trend is to leave a corporate office design behind and bring in elements of nature, creativity, and hospitality or residential design schemes.
Qualities or Experiences That Modern Office Design Features Portray –
- Inspired by nature. A tranquil area to be calming and connected with the natural world.
- Hotel lounge/residential design. Feels closer to home, familiar and nurturing. The hotel aspect ensures a residential style can still be about commerce.
- Collaborative zones to convene in smaller or larger groups, or as an entire organisation.
- Refreshment fulfils a must-have need whilst working together in a casual setting, meeting socially, one-to-one or for informal discussions.
- Quieter, more focused and avoids disruption that’s endemic in open plan.
- Social spaces for the end of week review into social time where company culture embraces community and conversation.
- Lobby will be upmarket, with a distinct design imprint conveying success.
- Creative Lab; nothing signals a progressive, flexible and dynamic business quite like an experimental and creative space.
Typically, clients aim to provide a mix of amenities for their staff. Workers want their offices to be more than just a workplace. Ideally a destination that provides motivation for the journey, a variation of work settings and the choice to work solo, to meet and collaborate with others, and to maintain work relationships.
In combining hospitality, social gathering, and flexible workspace in a setting designed with a distinct theme rather than a traditional corporate space, an office becomes a highly desirable destination. Add a good café facility that converts into a bar or event area, and you’ve created an authentic place to work and be. Locate this type of office within reach of a city social scene and all the boxes are ticked. This helps explain why many employers are seeking out well located grade A office space with a fit out that has many of the important facilities on workers’ lists.
Next-generation office buildings integrate hospitality, leisure and work. Flexible lounges, outdoor terraces and gathering areas don’t have to be the exclusive preserve of one tenant but instead can be provided by a landlord for communal use. Include decent conference and meeting areas and you’re getting pretty close to the draw of a popular co-working space.
Office designers add another level with features such as local artisan displays, biophilic accents, and adaptable spaces that flex for new ways of working or project-based requirements.
Office Interior Trends can be Overlaid Onto Existing Buildings
It’s entirely possible to incorporate many of the new office design ideas into existing offices as part of a refurbishment process. Reducing unwanted noise and improving air quality, daylight, and views out are often the basics of an office revamp. Design and retrofit of the new interior trends when incorporated during the design phase is do-able, with a few compromises. Often older buildings and existing floors may not have the architectural freedoms, but experienced designers can provide some of these amenities. Find out more about refurbishing your existing office with Fusion Office Design.
Rooftop terraces and flexible furniture are a step in the right direction. Creative, modular furniture, feature lighting, and integrated technology with large format writable surfaces for idea sharing and exploration of ideas easily form a blue-sky space. Gathering and project spaces can be doubled up with a café area just so long as facilities staff are able to support the transition, and this starts with good design.
A Great Office is Good for Business
Employees working at a great office are up to five times more likely to participate in new ways of working, much more likely to say they’re enjoying work, and a majority say they feel proud about their company and recommend it as a workplace.
Well-designed offices have been the norm for 30 years. This has evolved and developed to significantly improve engagement, flexibility and cohesion within organizations. The value of the workplace goes further than just an individual’s performance — it’s a space where staff come together for a shared purpose. Through asking employees what amenities are most valued, it’s easily conveyed to an office design company who can create and deliver a great working environment.
A Silent CEO
When staff are given spaces that are personal, flexible, and supportive it strengthens the leadership role for the SMT. You could label the office as a silent CEO, leading the shared sense of purpose that is at the core of successful business. This is why a great office is good for business.
If you want an office design company to help your office support the leadership of the business, get in touch with Fusion Office Design.
What’s Next in Office Design Trends?
Having set out our thoughts on what constitutes a great workplace now, with a departure from the traditional, and why it matters to organisations, the logical question is to ask what’s next. Predications for the next step is office design ideas are formative… so here’s a few suggestions.
As we’re all-in on ‘experiences’, our prediction for the next design feature is the hosting of workshops within offices. Be that a craft workshop where you learn a new skill (arts, crafts, etc), fitness tutoring, or just some work-related yet fun-orientated workshops, we’re predicting a trend to see third party activities becoming more sought after. With the rise in freelancers, it’s easy to see how demand can be met from the fractional labour force. To sum it up, our prediction for the next trend in workplace design features… artisan workshop space. You heard it here first.
Want to discuss your project?
Contact Fusion Office Design for a no-obligation chat, with no project being too big or too small. Whether you’re looking to upgrade a meeting room or undertake a full office refurbishment, Fusion are here to help.
Let’s design a workspace where your people can do their best work, every day.
