Do we still need an office? This is asked by companies, employees and even architects called upon to design new workplaces.
Not long ago, the answer to this question was obvious. When Steve Jobs commissioned the Bohlin Cywinski Jackson studio to build the Pixar headquarters in 1999, had in mind a place that promoted “unplanned meetings and collaborations”. Jobs believed in unexpected meetings to such an extent that he proposed that bathrooms be built only in the vicinity of a large atrium. At the time it was a crazy idea but today it would be even more so.
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Do you still need the office? Company, employees and managers try to understand this. What is certain is that we need reliable, flexible and powerful tools suitable for new hybrid lifestyles
In the era of anti-Covid restrictions, we think in the opposite direction. Google, for example, will use inflatable walls to isolate employees and intelligent workstations for those who alternate in the office: just swipe the badge to re-establish your preferences, from the intensity of the light to the height of the desk. Microsoft, on the other hand, will increasingly focus on campus where employees can independently move items such as tables and acoustic panels, in search of the right safety distance.
Hybrid work is not a fad
by Luca Indemini
The pandemic is accelerating plans for Facebook, which has long been working on a virtual office – called Infinite Office – which involves the use of Oculus viewers. It will not happen tomorrow, but it is clear that in the next few years the metaverse will become the digital meeting point between those who do not intend to give up on-the-job work and those who prefer to operate remotely.
After all, mixed meetings are already taking place today, in some Google offices, where new circular spaces called campfires have been set up: seated employees, filmed by a 360 ° video camera, communicate with colleagues who are elsewhere and appear on large monitors hanging on the walls.
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Such a scenario, which alternates flexible offices with nomadic work, requires the use of new tools – i virtual reality viewers, indeed, but in the future also haptic gloves – and the rediscovery of others who until now had played a secondary role, especially at home: the Wi-Fi router must be flawless to support – perhaps at the same time – the needs of work and family.
Smart working, technologies alone are not enough
by Marco Frojo
Wireless headphones and earphones, which were previously intended for music, now must also ensure good noise cancellation. Finally, at home, it will be necessary to scrupulously invest in objects that we took for granted at work: an ergonomic chair, for example, or an air conditioner or a strictly smart air purifier. At home or in the office, in short, and consequently in the office it will be necessary to feel more like at home: only in this way will employees return to the heart of large companies.
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