Office design has never played a more integral role in the success of a business as it does today. With each passing year, new technologies are implemented and new trends are adopted in office spaces around the world. This constantly changing landscape leads to new and exciting office design opportunities and workplace experimentation. The world of workplace design is ripe with change in 2018. The trend towards office optimization is forecast to increase exponentially as we head into 2019 and beyond.

  Innovation is part of any successful business strategy. Successful companies keep a keen eye out for new, game-changing ways to gain a competitive advantage while improving the bottom line. This blueprint led to an influx of cutting-edge products and best practice innovations that help boost employee morale and wellness. Creativity-enhancement strategies, wellness promotions, and experimental design initiatives benefit the entire business.

  In 2018 we saw office design trends that focused on innovative workplace designs and the creative use of workspaces. The trends of 2019 build upon the trends of yesteryear. Shining an ever-larger spotlight on employee and customer happiness, they maintain a focus on all things green.

  In this hyper-competitive workplace environment, attracting and retaining top talent is a key driver of success. It’s more important than ever to understand what potential recruits are looking for in a workplace environment while taking into account the expectations of current employees. Ambius has reviewed the literature, analyzed emerging workplace trends, and determined which trends have staying power. Drawing on our elite design team that covers large, small, and emerging markets throughout the United States and Canada, Ambius has identified the macro and micro trends that are driving workplace design into the future.

  As workplace design planning begins to target 2019 and beyond, these trends stand to make the most immediate and significant impacts on the future of office workspaces.

1. Macro Trends:

2. Experience-Driven Spaces:

  Incorporating direct experiences into your business model is common practice within industries like retail and hospitality where customer and guest experiences are crucial to success.  In one of the fastest growing trends on our list, the thirst for experience in our everyday life boils over into corporate America (and beyond) with the new Experience-Driven Spaces movement.

  The trend incorporates a host of characteristics, all of which orbit the “human potential” aspects of space optimization, the goal of which prioritizes the employee experience at work. Experience-Driven Spaces are highlighted by employee-focused and specialized enhancements aimed at developing overall wellness, cultivating happiness, community-building, and boosting morale for everyone from interns to top-floor executives.

  These on-site features are usually embodied by the spirit of the company rather than a one-size-fits-all, uniform approach.

  These Experience-Driven Spaces include (but are not limited to) features such as:

• Massage therapy and chiropractor consultation spaces
• Meditation areas
• Acupuncture and holistic medicine offerings
• Yoga studios and walking/jogging trails
• Rock climbing walls
• Espresso and cocktail bars
• Game rooms and virtual reality gaming spaces
• Corporate sports tournaments and active spaces (indoors and outdoors)
• Theater and music stages 

3. Free-Range Cohabitation Spaces:

  Co-working spaces are already booming in 2018, so why is it on our 2019 trends list? Here’s why.  It’s how these workspaces will evolve in 2019 and beyond that is changing considerably. Traditional co-working spaces, popularized by tech startups, bring multiple companies under one roof. The various entities operate separately and often remain closed off from one another. In the new cohabitation spaces, the walls are coming down and allowing companies to share the same space, resources, and sometimes even talent.

  The core features of the design all share the goal of maximizing collaboration, creativity, flexibility, and promoting innovative ideas. These open-format office spaces often share some of the same design tendencies that we associate with large silicon valley corporate offices. The “tech incubator” idea came to light in that very environment.

  Idea generation and constant interaction aside, all of the features represented in a free-range workspace are designed to attract millennials. Cohabitation spaces have evolved beyond the tech sector and are now being integrated into businesses of all shapes and sizes. This is especially true with companies that prize the benefits of coworking spaces. Coworking spaces offer increased innovation, creativity, resource efficiency, collaboration, and flexibility. Essentially, cohabitation spaces are the sharing-economy in its most realized form.

  Characteristics of the cohabitation space include:

• Open plan office design
• Dynamic, multi-use meeting areas
• Technology resource spaces
• Unconventional creative spaces
• Lots of glass
• Plants and greenery
• Portable green wall dividers
• Lightweight, mobile furniture
• Plenty of desk space / no cubicles
• Comfortable couches and chairs
• Coffee & espresso bars