RIP Open Offices, Cubicles are Cool Again

Open floor plans in offices used to be considered the epitome of modern design. No longer.

Thanks to a pandemic — and maybe a little bit to the fact that a lot of people hated the lack of privacy — cubicles and private offices are in fact cool again.

For a while, hot desking seemed like it was going to be the ticket. But while it works for some companies to let hybrid workers drop in as needed and grab any empty spot, this isn’t a practical paradigm for every office. One real estate CEO called hot desking “an interesting experiment whose time has passed” in Wall Street Journal.

“But, Tim, cubicles? They were kind of the worst, weren’t they?”

They kind of were.

If the old cubicle culture did not float your boat, though, never fear. The “new cubicle culture” is more thought-through. Newly built offices are giving workers more personal space and establishing “quiet zones” amidst collaborative areas.

Speaking of #collaboration, while it will always be important to the world of work, it’s becoming less of a buzzword in the world of corporate real estate, supplanted with the current fashion in office design: #privacy.

#corporateculture #officedesign