Activity-based design before and after COVID-19

Challenge

When COVID-19 hit Denmark, Copenhagen Properties and Purchasing (KEID) was in the process of implementing a new design concept for their organisation’s workplaces: activitybased design. The basic idea in activity-based interior design is that in modern everyday life, work is not a place, but an activity that is carried out where the surroundings best support the task.1 In contrast to the traditional open-plan office, activity-based office design is built around zones for different types of tasks. Employees do not have fixed work-stations but move during the working day and find the zone that best suits the current task. There are zones for teamwork, for meetings, for focused work, etc. In the Municipality of Copenhagen, each team unit maintains a “home area”, but employees may freely use all zones across the organisation. From an infection perspective, however, this kind of free movement between zones and the large open-plan office itself became a challenge.

Solution

During lockdown, remote working became commonplace for many people with office jobs. With the gradual return to the norm, it became

Taxonomy

Sphere: The Workplace

Timescale: Long Term necessary to lay out strategies for hybrid working life. In KEID’s buildings on Borups Allé in Copenhagen, the activity-based layout has been adapted so that the organisation and its employees can continue to explore the benefits of the zoned office without the employees’ mobility posing a risk of infection. All employees who show up start the day at their team base, where personal belongings can be stored during the day. But instead of moving around freely between different zones, employees must now choose to work in one zone that day. Throughout different phases of the pandemic, the activity-based design provided different options for the use of the office space.

The example shows how activity-based interior design can support hybrid working life, which has in a very short time become the norm for many. The notion that work is an activity and not a place did not arise during the COVID-19 lockdowns, but the experience that was gained during the pandemic may help to qualify and strengthen the design of the office of the future.

Type: Interior Design

User Group: Employees/Service Providers

The different zones in KEID’s offices are used for different types of tasks Before

Project and location: KEID’s Offices, Copenhagen, Denmark

Contributor: Municipality of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Properties and Purchasing (KEID)

Established: 2020