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As offices have become more space efficient, the configuration and use of office desks, enabled with wireless technology, has also undergone tremendous change. “In some cases an office is almost like a hotel lobby,” said Gilbert Griño, marketing manager, Bafco.
“The old concept of the office, where there are standard desks, is gone,” he said, referring to the growing trend of hot desking.
“There are a lot of interpretations of hot desking, but essentially it’s about having empty workspaces which are completely connected. People come into the office to connect with what’s happening, so design shouldn’t push frigid or standard furniture.”
Using a host of wireless technologies can also make a company more dynamic than its competitors, said Gordon-Keep.
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“All these technological advances make it much easier for them to form and reform when they have to restructure, or as the organisation demands it. Technology-led design can be very flexible and responsive to how the nature of work is going to change,” she added.
The notion of employees each having their own permanent desk is becoming an antiquated one, admitted Amanda Stanaway, senior associate at Woods Bagot.
“Some of the projects we’ve been working on have been modelled on an activity-based working model, which is where no one has a particular desk but there are different varieties of settings, depending on the task,” she explained.
Technology has driven design, she continued, in that “everybody in the office is given a mobile phone and a laptop, which means they can actually work anywhere within any environment”.
This, in turn, has presented new opportunities for designers to create offices that are sustainable. After all, “when a building’s occupants are able to work anywhere, it becomes an incredibly efficient, sustainability model”, Stanaway explained.
Ingrained efficiency
So, when tasked recently with designing office space for a company employing 3,500 people, Woods Bagot created a building able to accommodate 2,700 at any one time.
“It’s an activity-based office, which is a very different approach to how you work within an office, and we were able to put the sustainability aspect of that into practice,” said Sarah Kay, principal and interior design leader at Woods Bagot.
“This model takes into account the fact that most office buildings have an occupancy rate of 60% to 80% at any one time, considering sick leave, people moving, or the type of work they do. So, you can use that remaining 20% to load the floor with 20% more people,” said Kay. “Technology is the only way we are able to do this,” she continued, referring to the iPad and other lightweight touchscreen devices, which allow people to work away from their desks with ease.
“In terms of spatial efficiency, it’s an incredibly sustainable footprint in any energy consumption model. That sort of workplace looks drastically different to another type of workplace because it’s not just desks within a space – it’s much more active, there are many more people walking around, the technology looks different, even the fittings look different,” Kay continued.
Catering to clients who place sustainability high on their agenda is becoming a priority for the region’s major suppliers of office furnishings and design services. Design and manufacturing firms such as Bene, The Total Office, Bafco and Buro 45 comply with international green building codes such as LEED, ISO and BREEAM, and encourage their clients to also prioritise the environment when choosing designs and furniture.
Many companies in the Middle East, however, are far behind their European, British and American counterparts in recognising the importance of sustainable practices. “Clients don’t really put in specific requests to have materials sustainably sourced, but as a manufacturer it is our responsibility,” said Griño. “If the cost of producing our products the eco-friendly way is the same, and it is, then we may as well do it the correct way,” he pointed out.
If any effort is put towards being sustainable, Kandil added, it is mostly for marketing and public relations purposes. “In all honesty,” he said, “I see some of our local clients, and they just want to have LEED certification; they don’t actually care about the environment. To be sustainable, it requires lots of money, and in the Middle East we find it difficult to find clients that pay proper money for proper projects.”
Gordon-Keep, meanwhile, believes that the economic downturn has stunted the region’s progress in demanding sustainably-sourced furnishings. “It’s about spend at the minute. If a larger company is doing a refit, then they have a budget allocated, but smaller companies are moving out of necessity, more often than not. They don’t know what the future holds and how long they’re going to be in a space, so they don’t want to overspend.”
Kandil, however, remains optimistic that local companies and government departments will change their attitude. “Organisations here are far behind, yes, but they are on their way.”
As advances continue to blur the lines between progressive workplace design, wireless technology and environmentally sustainable practices, the region’s most efficient and productive workplaces will be those that seamlessly merge all three.
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