Post-Pandemic Office Architecture

Is the end of the open office coming? How are workspaces evolving? The Covid-19 pandemic has affected our lives in many ways. The first phase was about human relationships, and the second phase was about our relationship with spaces. Consequently, architectural practices inevitably adapted to this. So, what awaits offices where working people spend a significant part of their daily lives from now on?

For years, designers have emphasized the importance of natural lighting, ventilation, and connection with nature to improve employee health and productivity. These concepts became much more meaningful during the Covid-19 pandemic. Various global studies since 2020 point to several different directions for the new office layout. The benefits of open and clean air were already known, and the experience of the last 1.5 years has reinforced this knowledge. Therefore, one of the prominent elements of new office architecture has become the use of outdoor spaces. Although climate conditions affect the integration of outdoor areas into offices, balconies, gardens, and terraces no longer seem to be reserved only for smokers. More effective inclusion of open spaces in workplaces is just one of the anticipated changes. Research shows that the biggest differences in architecture will be in elevator use, corridors, stairs, open office layouts, and building entrances and exits.


Surveys conducted by architectural, design, planning, and consulting firm Gensler with office workers reveal that people do not want to completely disconnect from the office environment. Janet Pogue McLaurin, Gensler’s global research leader for workplaces, states that the office experience will vary according to employees’ different work routines. Aiming to transition to a hybrid work model after the pandemic, Gensler is developing design strategies that offer the best experience for everyone by understanding how people work best individually and as teams. For this reason, they are exploring ways to make workplaces more flexible and functional. Some of these include dividing floors into different “zones” and designing movable furniture groups that allow for team or independent work as needed. According to McLaurin, the use of smart building technologies will also gain importance post-pandemic. Especially contactless environments, smart ventilation systems, and technologies that enable remote management of all building facilities will continue to develop rapidly.

Elevator capacity limits, elevators that recognize identities and go to the desired floor, more and more practical stairs in architecture, and different solutions emerging for buildings with many employees… The shift to rotational work schedules; replacing open offices with more distanced individual workstations; organizing remote or office work options according to the conditions of different teams and designing the workplace to fit this organization are among the innovations we will encounter in the near future.