Stories
Stories
Podcast
21.1.2021
It is sometimes fascinating how the perception of a phenomenon can change over time. If you go back a good hundred years, to the late days of the German Empire, you will find a heated debate about so-called "working from home", which in many ways is reminiscent of today's debate about the "home office", as working from home is now called.
The big difference: back in 1912, when the Home Work Act was being debated in the Reichstag, it was mainly the pro-labor parties that opposed working from home for fear that employers would be able to exploit their employees in an uncontrolled manner. Today, it is these political players who are the most vocal in demanding the right to work from home in order to free workers everywhere from the cruel mills of open-plan offices.
Of course, working at home today is no longer about manual tasks such as carving toys or tying bouquets of flowers. Instead, office jobs, which primarily take place in front of the computer anyway, should no longer be tied to the desk at the company. And yet this example shows once again how perceptions have shifted due to coronavirus. Because even the SPD, whose Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil now wants - so far in vain - to enforce a right to work from home, until recently carried around the same concerns as in 1912, namely the worry that employees would be deprived of even the last bit of freedom from work. The fact that this has changed so fundamentally would probably have been unimaginable without the pandemic.
Now that the genie is out of the bottle and even employee representatives are calling for more home offices and more flexible working models, the question arises as to what should happen to the office towers in city centers. Do we still need offices? And if we do, what should they look like?
Laura Kienbaum has been dealing with precisely this question, and not just since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The architect is Managing Director of Combine Design, a company that advises companies on the development of innovative office concepts and also implements them.
"All of these topics, which can be roughly summarized as New Work, have been on our minds for years," she reports. Until now, however, companies have often shied away from making too many changes. "Now, during the crisis, it has suddenly become clear: Most things do work," says Kienbaum. In her opinion, however, this does not mean the end of the office: "We have seen that people are missing a lot when working from home."
However, the classic open-plan office or the corridor with dozens of individual offices with fixed assignments is likely to be history. "The office of the future must offer employees four things: Opportunities for concentrated work, for communication, but above all for collaboration and for communal experiences," explains Kienbaum.
In concrete terms, this means that rooms are no longer assigned to individual people or teams. "There will still be small, closed-off offices, but they can be used by anyone who needs a few hours of peace and concentration," explains Kienbaum. There will also be areas where teams can work together in large groups and communal areas for casual conversation during lunch breaks or after work. The aim is also to promote exchanges between different teams and departments and thus allow interdisciplinary cooperation to grow organically.
Sven Carstensen is also cautious when it comes to the possible end of the offices. He works for the real estate analysis company Bulwiengesa. "At the moment, we really only have surveys on this topic," he says. There is a lack of reliable data and the debate is characterized by opinions. "Nobody can say today which of these will ultimately become reality," he explains.
At the moment, companies tend to need even more office space in order to meet pandemic requirements. And the implementation of home office concepts is not as easy as some people make it seem. "Think about IT security, for example: many companies have gone to great lengths to secure their own technology against attacks," he says: "If all employees now also have a home office space, then this protection suddenly no longer helps." One possible compromise could be satellite offices in suburban areas, which also reduce commuting distances but are still organized by the employer.
Laura Kienbaum also points out that a spatial conversion should ideally not stand alone. "If you continue to cling to old work processes, the new space concepts often remain unused," she warns. At the same time, a company cannot turn processes around and believe that this will work in traditional space concepts. "What's more, every company has its own needs, there is no one-size-fits-all solution," says Kienbaum.
If flexible space concepts adapted to the individual company become established in the long term, building owners will also have to take this into account. Although office space is usually leased on a long-term basis, when a new tenant arrives, they will expect to be able to implement their own space concept in the future. Obstacles that Kienbaum and her team still frequently encounter today should then be reduced. Too often, working environments have been planned purely functionally, and there is often no room for design without directly measurable benefits. "But it doesn't make sense if the focus is only on design," she adds. An exaggerated example of this is the famous ball pool, which may look modern, but is often of no use to employees and is hardly ever used.
"In principle, they need to involve the HR and communications departments as well as real estate/facility management when designing and creating offices," says Kienbaum.
The urban context should also be considered: "Is the office located in an urban context with a diverse range of uses, or on a greenfield site? How should the office concept respond to this?" she explains. In times of declining demand, project developers should not only think about flexible building organization, but also about making their buildings look inviting on the outside so that future users enjoy coming to work.
Will every company now work on redesigning its space? Sven Carstensen from Bulwiengesa remains cautious. "Ultimately, these ideas already existed before, we will see whether this is really what remains of corona," he explains. One advantage, however, is certainly that demand for office space is initially declining due to the recession. "This gives tenants better leverage, so they can negotiate more space at better conditions," he says.
In Laura Kienbaum's opinion, new spatial concepts are helpful for companies to survive in the post-corona era. "Ultimately, it is important for companies to find an attitude to these developments, which one is secondary for now," she says. Some large companies have already said that they consider the presence of employees on site to be essential. Other companies already have a modularized office environment and may be able to plan more space-efficiently in the future and invest the resources freed up elsewhere. "In any case, you need a clear goal for your own office of the future, on which all those involved then work together."
Stories
21.1.2021
Lars-Thorben Niggehoff
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the mass introduction of working from home, many companies have been considering how they should use their office space in the future. There are already concepts for this, but implementing them is more difficult than some might think.
It is sometimes fascinating how the perception of a phenomenon can change over time. If you go back a good hundred years, to the late days of the German Empire, you will find a heated debate about so-called "working from home", which in many ways is reminiscent of today's debate about the "home office", as working from home is now called.
The big difference: back in 1912, when the Home Work Act was being debated in the Reichstag, it was mainly the pro-labor parties that opposed working from home for fear that employers would be able to exploit their employees in an uncontrolled manner. Today, it is these political players who are the most vocal in demanding the right to work from home in order to free workers everywhere from the cruel mills of open-plan offices.
Of course, working at home today is no longer about manual tasks such as carving toys or tying bouquets of flowers. Instead, office jobs, which primarily take place in front of the computer anyway, should no longer be tied to the desk at the company. And yet this example shows once again how perceptions have shifted due to coronavirus. Because even the SPD, whose Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil now wants - so far in vain - to enforce a right to work from home, until recently carried around the same concerns as in 1912, namely the worry that employees would be deprived of even the last bit of freedom from work. The fact that this has changed so fundamentally would probably have been unimaginable without the pandemic.
Now that the genie is out of the bottle and even employee representatives are calling for more home offices and more flexible working models, the question arises as to what should happen to the office towers in city centers. Do we still need offices? And if we do, what should they look like?
Laura Kienbaum has been dealing with precisely this question, and not just since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The architect is Managing Director of Combine Design, a company that advises companies on the development of innovative office concepts and also implements them.
"All of these topics, which can be roughly summarized as New Work, have been on our minds for years," she reports. Until now, however, companies have often shied away from making too many changes. "Now, during the crisis, it has suddenly become clear: Most things do work," says Kienbaum. In her opinion, however, this does not mean the end of the office: "We have seen that people are missing a lot when working from home."
However, the classic open-plan office or the corridor with dozens of individual offices with fixed assignments is likely to be history. "The office of the future must offer employees four things: Opportunities for concentrated work, for communication, but above all for collaboration and for communal experiences," explains Kienbaum.
In concrete terms, this means that rooms are no longer assigned to individual people or teams. "There will still be small, closed-off offices, but they can be used by anyone who needs a few hours of peace and concentration," explains Kienbaum. There will also be areas where teams can work together in large groups and communal areas for casual conversation during lunch breaks or after work. The aim is also to promote exchanges between different teams and departments and thus allow interdisciplinary cooperation to grow organically.
Sven Carstensen is also cautious when it comes to the possible end of the offices. He works for the real estate analysis company Bulwiengesa. "At the moment, we really only have surveys on this topic," he says. There is a lack of reliable data and the debate is characterized by opinions. "Nobody can say today which of these will ultimately become reality," he explains.
At the moment, companies tend to need even more office space in order to meet pandemic requirements. And the implementation of home office concepts is not as easy as some people make it seem. "Think about IT security, for example: many companies have gone to great lengths to secure their own technology against attacks," he says: "If all employees now also have a home office space, then this protection suddenly no longer helps." One possible compromise could be satellite offices in suburban areas, which also reduce commuting distances but are still organized by the employer.
Laura Kienbaum also points out that a spatial conversion should ideally not stand alone. "If you continue to cling to old work processes, the new space concepts often remain unused," she warns. At the same time, a company cannot turn processes around and believe that this will work in traditional space concepts. "What's more, every company has its own needs, there is no one-size-fits-all solution," says Kienbaum.
If flexible space concepts adapted to the individual company become established in the long term, building owners will also have to take this into account. Although office space is usually leased on a long-term basis, when a new tenant arrives, they will expect to be able to implement their own space concept in the future. Obstacles that Kienbaum and her team still frequently encounter today should then be reduced. Too often, working environments have been planned purely functionally, and there is often no room for design without directly measurable benefits. "But it doesn't make sense if the focus is only on design," she adds. An exaggerated example of this is the famous ball pool, which may look modern, but is often of no use to employees and is hardly ever used.
"In principle, they need to involve the HR and communications departments as well as real estate/facility management when designing and creating offices," says Kienbaum.
The urban context should also be considered: "Is the office located in an urban context with a diverse range of uses, or on a greenfield site? How should the office concept respond to this?" she explains. In times of declining demand, project developers should not only think about flexible building organization, but also about making their buildings look inviting on the outside so that future users enjoy coming to work.
Will every company now work on redesigning its space? Sven Carstensen from Bulwiengesa remains cautious. "Ultimately, these ideas already existed before, we will see whether this is really what remains of corona," he explains. One advantage, however, is certainly that demand for office space is initially declining due to the recession. "This gives tenants better leverage, so they can negotiate more space at better conditions," he says.
In Laura Kienbaum's opinion, new spatial concepts are helpful for companies to survive in the post-corona era. "Ultimately, it is important for companies to find an attitude to these developments, which one is secondary for now," she says. Some large companies have already said that they consider the presence of employees on site to be essential. Other companies already have a modularized office environment and may be able to plan more space-efficiently in the future and invest the resources freed up elsewhere. "In any case, you need a clear goal for your own office of the future, on which all those involved then work together."
About the author
Lars-Thorben Niggehoff
Lars-Thorben Niggehoff writes about real estate, start-ups and investing.
