Feature: THE OFFICE UPRISING
From workplace to safe space
Hines’ latest timber office in Barcelona aims to respond to occupier needs
The pandemic has drastically changed work patterns around the world and has, in turn, sparked a revolution around how owners and occupiers think about office use, Ben Cooper reports
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ompare the designs of the office developments coming out of the ground in 2022 with those at the turn of the 21st century and, with only a few exceptions either side, the difference is remarkable. It doesn’t matter which developed market you look at, from Singapore to Stockholm, the days of putting up a box with only the minimum of features beyond the functional are long gone. No wonder, considering the times. New work paradigms, whole new business models based around flexibility, even fun in the workplace, new attitudes towards the role of the office
landlord — all have shaped the way that investors, and occupiers, look at offices today. And all of that is before you get into the formative turmoil of the past two years, and a seismic upheaval that has changed everything in business, most of all the modes by which people work. Despina Katsikakis is the global lead of Cushman & Wakefield’s Total Workplace services, as well as being an internationally renowned lecturer on the future of work and wellness in the workplace, and an advisory member of the WELL initiative to advance health and wellbeing in buildings. She says that the past two years
amount to nothing less than a “trauma event” that will have untold consequences for our understanding of wellness at work. “People’s access to social connections, knowledge, mentoring and wellbeing have all suffered,” she says. “We are seeing a huge amount of focus now on treating this as a trauma event. We’ve been looking at this whole idea of workplace re-integration where you can create spaces where people feel safe. She adds: “From a building perspective we’ve totally acknowledged that ubiquitous tech can be used to manage a more dynamic interface between user and space to transform those
spaces and energy consumption. We’ve experienced a work-life integration that has transformed our expectations for the future.” With transformed expectations comes new demands and pressures on office developers — and owners — to adapt. But Raphel Brault, head of France at international real estate asset management firm AEW, says that for professionals specialising in office space, the pandemic has been more of an accelerant of these new patterns than a sudden transformer. “The general market consensus is that the pandemic has been a catalyst to existing market trends. Working from home was already
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