Contract Magazine - June 2020 - 36

future scenarios
DESIGN IN ACTION

The post-pandemic workplace: IA Interior Architects imagines an office
that addresses safety, choice, and flexibility, and adapts to changing circumstances.
IA Interior Architects project team:
Clark Pickett, design director,
and Meghan Toner, designer (concept and research);
Jami Howard, senior designer (sketches);
and Jessie Quan (graphics)

The world of work has dramatically changed, bringing new challenges,
questions, and opportunities to companies, employees, developers, and
designers. A large portion of the workforce has temporarily relocated from
the office to the home, while many more people are unemployed. Forecasting
is problematic as the circumstances change weekly, but there is hope that
the current crisis will teach us more about ourselves and the way we work.
There has been an unprecedented shift to working from home, and the office
of the near future will no doubt integrate remote work, as well as a focus
on person-to-person connections and workplace culture.
What will the office look like when we re-enter the workplace? Leveraging
real-time feedback, gathering future data, and adapting to changing times
will help, but we must start with asking the right questions:

Where are we going to work?
How can technology play a role?
How can we create safe and healthy environments?
How do we retain and foster culture?
What has this shift taught us about empathy, diversity,
equity, and inclusion?
* What is our responsibility to the environment?
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The information and data we gather today will inform the workplace
of tomorrow. We must think about the short, medium, and long term
to understand, assess, develop, and implement plans for the future.
Here we present seven work environments alongside next steps, change
management strategy, and long-term policies to consider in creating
the post-pandemic workplace.

INDIVIDUAL DESKS
DEDICATED AND RESERVED

DAYLIGHT
PHYSICAL DISTANCING
DESKING WITH SCREENING

SMALL GROUP SPACE

WORKPLACE:
SOCIAL DESIGN IN ACTION
NEAR TERM, NEXT STEPS:
Gather and synthesize data.
Survey employees on remote culture,
workflow, health and safety concerns,
and aspirational changes for the office.
Evaluate existing real estate spaces.
TRANSITION PERIOD, CHANGE
MANAGEMENT STRATEGY:
Implement social distance design.
Rethink circulation to accommodate
new social distancing norms. Adjust
desk spacing, consider seating every
other desk and adding desktop panels.
Develop a new ratio of fixed and
free address desking based on remote
working calculation. Consider
an alternate day office schedule.

INDIVIDUAL SPACE
CLEAN HANDS
DIRECTIONAL
CIRCULATION

36

INTEGRATED SANITATION STATIONS

LONG-TERM POLICIES:
Develop guidelines.
Seating based on a mix of free address,
assigned seating, and social distancing
guidelines. Return to work in a phased
approach. Adapt amenity spaces to
foster culture. Implement new health
and wellness protocols.

contractdesign.com

JUNE 2020
http://www.contractdesign.com
Contract Magazine - June 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract Magazine - June 2020
