August 17, 2022
Why interior design is important and The global shift to remote working and video calls caused by the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be ignored. While companies learn invaluable lessons about a more remote culture and improvement of workflow channels, it is vital to think about how the culture will change once the workforce returns to offices in the ‘new normal’. While workspaces can always be designed keeping the norms and regulations of safe distancing, it is the workforce and the people who have to follow it. So, a people-centric approach must be kept in mind while planning a return to the workplace.
Here are a few objectives that we suggest workspaces should focus on as they look into post-COVID-19 office design:
Open & Divided workspaces
Post the COVID-19 pandemic the new-age office workspaces will witness tremendous interior design transformations. These include spacious placement of office furniture, sub-divided zones for workstations, bigger meeting rooms, socially distant lunch tables and workstations. The office designs post-pandemic will surely witness the rise of the spacious office desks once again, which had shrunk over the years. Moreover, office work stations might be reconfigured to allow the stipulated 2-metre distance between the employees, through see-through partitions, floor markings, and back-to-back or side-to-side working arrangement.
No-Contact Technology
Office etiquettes post-COVID will witness a technological uprising as contact with surfaces needed to be avoided as much as possible. Offices might need to employ motion sensors, automatic office doors and even smart appliances for implementing the no-contact policy required in COVID. These changes are only the beginning of post-COVID changes in commercial interior design, and we might also see technology giants come into the picture. Technology such as Alexa and Google Home might become the go-to options offices for many tasks, such as storing notes, scheduling calendar events, and much more. While the world currently practices the work from home, and Zoom and Google Meet culture, post-COVID offices will be a different scenario altogether.
Upgraded air filtration & ventilation systems
One of the ways the Coronavirus is known to spread is through air particles, which are released when coughing, sneezing or even talking. While many of these particles scatter and dissolve quickly, many linger in the air for prolonged periods, increasing the risk of transmission. To tackle the spread, workspaces will have to upgrade their air filtration and ventilation systems to mitigate the effects of these potentially viral particles and curb the spread. For smaller offices with low capital, portable air purifiers will be an affordable solution.
Cleaner workspaces
Hygiene will be the priority for workspaces post COVID-19, a trait that many workspaces did not adhere to before the pandemic. Better sanitisation, better cleanliness and better hygiene will need to be ramped up due to shared workspaces and other areas and objects, such as doorknobs, handles, bathrooms, and ore. Frequent and thorough cleaning with antibacterial cleaners and easy access to hand sanitisers for the workforce will be a must. Companies should promote personal sanitation among employees to ensure maximum safety from the infection spread. For any new offices in construction, the interior designs should be thought out, keeping in mind these hygiene practices.
Office Interactions
Office interactions are likely to change altogether in the post-COVID workplace era. The culture of telework, reduced workforce and remote working has already begun. Moreover, traditional office greetings are a thing of the past now, due to the minimum distance regulations to curb the virus spread.
Since handshakes and hugs are clearly out of the picture, office interactions might be limited to elbow shakes or even the traditional greeting of India, ‘Namaste’. These practices are being promoted all around the globe, as people in UAE were directed to avoid the conventional way of nose-to-nose greeting. At the same time, offices in Beijing adopted Namaste as a popular way to greet each other. These are just the beginning of safe-distance addresses, and it is unlikely that we go back to the older days, at least in the distant future.
Post-COVID-19 times will look way different than how we went into the pandemic. The need for automated and smart systems are at an all-time high now, and technology such as automatic doors, video calls and smart appliances have changed the way we look at the world. While there are many more changes to come, the workstations and the workforce must blend into this ‘new normal’ as soon as possible.
