As with every other industry, the year ends off by looking back on the previous year’s successes and failures while looking forward into the new year to predict what it will bring. The office design business is no different. Learning from the past and using that knowledge to create a better future is how our world progresses. In the name of such progression, we present the top office design trends for 2019.
Cross Company Cohabitation
Bringing down barriers between departments has been a trend in office design for some years now. This has led to an increase in interaction between workers who would rarely bump into each other in an old school office space. This interaction has been found to fuel creative thinking as new perspectives work their way into the traditional bonds that exist within a single department. 2019 is taking this collaborative type of office design one step farther by melding two or more different companies under a single roof. Rather than just gaining perspectives from another department, employees are able to learn about points of view from completely different industries. And not only will each company benefit from new ideas in this type of cross pollination, the new office plan brings down the infrastructure costs as well.
Reappropriation Of Derelict Neighbourhoods
Land for new office space comes at a premium – especially when working within a traditional downtown core. As technology has helped change the types of industries that lead the economy, it has also changed the way that traditionally industrial districts are being used. There’s a lot of land that was once teeming with industrialized enterprises that is now vacant as the face of the economy changes. New economy businesses have been at the forefront of reappropriating and repurposing these tracts of land to suit the needs of a new generation of workers. Old warehouses, seaports and factories can be repurposed to create bold, exciting and new work environments for the creative class.
Further Greening
Being an environmentally sound business has long been a goal of progressive companies. This trend just continues as more companies get on board and those that were already there find more ways to reduce their carbon footprint. We’re still a long way from zero impact industry, so there will always be more room for improvement in this sector. Look for further innovations in the integration of an environmental perspective into the mission statements of today’s businesses.
