WORK, REWORKED Is the office obsolete?

Thom Brown Pop-Up. Le Bon Marche, Paris.

By Luis F Rueda and John Michael O’Sullivan

Lockdown has proved that remote working doesn’t decrease productivity. As a result, companies across the world are re-thinking the need for conventional workspaces. So what will the office of the future look like?

In early March, when the pandemic forced us into lockdown, workers across the world transitioned to working from home — and for managers and business owners, maintaining productivity became a burning concern. Prior to that, most employers tended to oppose the idea or remote working, fearful that distractions at home would impact on productivity. 

That was in March. Three months on, however, studies are proving the opposite. Forbes recently reported on the results of a survey carried out by Prodoscore, which showed a 47% increase in worker productivity. 

One reason, without doubt, is the fact that time typically spent commuting to and from work — on average, anywhere between 2 to 4 hours a day — is being used to tackle work tasks instead. But the key factor is that workers are now equipped with the tools, technology, connections, and infrastructure needed in order to continue producing while away from the familiar office set-up. 

From workplace to work platforms

This shift has clearly been triggered by lockdown. But according to Daniel Pink, author of several books on business and human behaviour, it’s accelerated a trend that’s been in existence for some time. And it’s highlighted how conventional our workspaces are, for the most part, based on principles largely unchanged for decades.  

We ride or drive from home to office, sit at ‘our’ desks, have regularised breaks and follow Monday-to-Friday, 9-to-5 schedules just as our parents and grandparents did. But we can do things they could never have imagined, thanks to the Internet; bounce ideas off each other via Teams, have water cooler conversations in WhatsApp groups, host seminars on Webex, share mood boards over Pinterest, and socialise on Zoom. Technology liberated us years ago, it turns out; we just hadn’t noticed. And perhaps it was the straitjacket of office space, and office routines, that were holding us back all this time.

Now, we’re facing a future where employees have proved that remote working can drive increased productivity, and where the COVID 19 virus — which ignited this conversation — is still spreading. Add to this the costs of rent on office space currently going unused, and you have a paradigm that is begging for reassessment. 

From headquarters to work hubs. 

In this changed landscape, it’s likely that we’ll continue working from home. Instead of centralised, congested corporate offices, it may well be that companies start to operate from smaller, office hubs, anchored by meeting spaces fitted out with state-of-the-art video conferencing equipment, capable of hosting both physical and online conferences with clients and other team members. These meeting spaces would be complemented by accessible, well-ventilated communal spaces, designed to support work for the shortened periods of time when workers need to be on site. Using digital tools, employees would be able to remotely book access to a desk or a conference room in the office hub. 

The pre-pandemic rise of hot-desking and co-working spaces had already begun the task of shaking up the world of work. The emphasis now, though, at least in the short term, will be more on hygiene, including air purification, and on essential services rather than on headline-grabbing amenities. 

But in this vision of a new work order, we can’t neglect the importance of aesthetics. Design will remain a vital force, deployed to enhance camaraderie, morale, and productivity with environments that deliver a sensorial, soothing, and reassuring experience, which allow us the chance to get back to real-world connections with our colleagues and with the company’s mission. And just as we look to bring audiences back to all other aspects of public life - retail, hospitality, wellbeing, travel - we should look towards the positive; celebrating the new opportunities, new strategies and new formats that this shift in how we work, and live will provide.

The Pandemic Has Made The Standardized Retail Experience Obsolete

Formerly of HMKM – a studio that had a 30-year run in New York City and London before closing its doors this month – creative director Luis Rueda has worked with the likes of Starbucks, Herman Miller, Sonos and Nike in the span of his career. The designer-architect works with world-class brands to create intuitive, immersive consumer journeys from concept to construction. Here, he and HMKM architect John Michael O'Sullivan share their views on how the pandemic has rendered the standardized retail experience obsolete.

In hindsight, perhaps the easiest part was shutting up the shops. The COVID-19 pandemic forced stores across cities, countries and continents to close their doors as staff and customers alike went into lockdown. And while isolation tested the e-commerce capabilities of bricks and mortar retailers, coming out of lockdown and opening shops once more will test the very purpose of their retail space.

People are emerging into a changed world, and it is one that will require new rituals that balance safe human contact with the sheer joy of being social again. Within the shopping context, that allows retailers to think boldly, to reimagine retail so it is more in sync with changing consumer behaviour and sentiment. Now is the time for retailers to consider their stores from a new perspective: what should the role of this space be, in this location, for this customer? The days of retailers having carbon-copy shops across locations have passed. If every store needs to be a destination of purpose, then that purpose will be different from shop to shop.

The days of retailers having carbon-copy shops across locations have passed. If every store needs to be a destination of purpose, then that purpose will be different from shop to shop

This requires retailers to have direct conversations with customers, both to build trust and to understand their needs. They will already have the benefit of pre-coronavirus shopping data, giving insight and analysis into store specifics – but this will need to be scrutinized within this new context. Who exactly is visiting, what items are most popular, what time of day or week are busiest? Only by drilling into this data, and overlaying it with current customer conversations, can new format strategies be determined. So, retailers must put feedback mechanisms in place and invest in market research to dip into the current expectations of shoppers and understand what will draw people into the physical retail space after this period of shutdown.

It is time to use data harvested during customer interactions to make decisions on what products or services to offer in each location. Nike pioneered this idea with the opening of the Nike Melrose By You store. A good portion of the product and services offered in that store reflect the preferences of consumers in the area. And this is constantly changing to reflect the season, aesthetic and practical preferences. The result is that the store is in close ‘conversation’ with its consumers. Digital technology means this dialogue between consumer and brand can take place at all brand touchpoints, regardless of location.

The commercial world has had to reassess and regroup to respond rapidly and be flexible with its infrastructure to rethink the best use of its physical space

Before the pandemic, it wasn’t unusual for brands to blanket the landscape with stores, all selling the same items, and often offering a standardized experience. But the past few months have fundamentally shifted our shopping behaviour. From DIY to food, horticulture to technology, automotive to fashion, the commercial world has had to reassess and regroup to respond rapidly and be flexible with its infrastructure to rethink the best use of its physical space.

As consumers were forced to stay home – as well as turn to online – they also turned to local stores for their shopping requirements. To what extent this localized behaviour will continue as people increase their movements remains to be seen. But there’s no doubt that the past few months have meant people have adapted and often enjoyed smaller, more personal experiences that retail chains can learn from as they offer more heterogeneous experiences.

If social distancing means fewer products can be displayed and fewer shoppers are allowed in at any one time, those items featured in store must have the best chance of resonating

There is a new urgency for more customization of stores: if social distancing means fewer products can be displayed and fewer shoppers are allowed in at any one time, those items featured in store must have the best chance of resonating with the visiting shoppers. As new shopping rituals emerge, there will be a shift toward a more tailored experience which will help improve brands’ real estate portfolios – if each store is a single word, those separate words combine into a sentence that builds the complete brand narrative.

This article, written in collaboration with John Michael O’Sullivan and edited by Alison Cardy, was originally published on FRAME Magazine

https://www.frameweb.com/news/retail-post-covid-luis-rueda