The modern workspace has changed. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic that dramatically made businesses rethink the office environment, the 21st-century workplace was being retooled to meet contemporary needs. The changes were founded on a desire to improve productivity, sustainability and elevating inhabitants’ wellness where they work, play, heal, and live.
Historically, coworking spaces were simply a matter of efficiently packing in the necessary workforce to get the job done. As long as the tools were there, along with bathrooms and break areas, that seemed to be enough for employees to do their job. However, companies and business owners are realizing there is now a need to boost employee wellness. Luckily, updating coworking space designs can provide a simple solution to this modern problem.
Architectural and interior design aesthetics play a crucial role in promoting employee wellness. Exciting art, paint color combinations, ceiling installations and amenities like sophisticated gyms, saunas and even massage parlors create more opportunities for employees to feel happier about where they’re spending their time. For those paying attention to the numbers, any increase in employee wellness directly impacts productivity.
Traditionally, coworking space design has been nothing more than an array of cubicles, a few meeting rooms, and management offices. To counter this, modern coworking spaces look to offer more diverse environments that allow employees to have a more communal experience.
Modern coworking space design works to boost community wellness by creating more opportunities at work to socialize and be together. Instead of separating people by cubicles, open-air concepts allow people to feel more connected to one another. Even just being able to see others while working can have a range of positive effects.
In addition to open-air environments, unique spaces within the offices for groups of employees to hang out and work together have been found to be highly beneficial. While some tasks require severe concentration and alone time, not every task is this way. Many can easily be done sitting on a couch with coworkers, harnessing the fuel of community to improve wellness.
“Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago” Chicago, IL, BOX Studios (Architect), Featuring: SoftGrid® Flux by Arktura
Nature as an aesthetic is back — and it’s easy to see why. The beauty of nature has been present in art ever since science began to unlock not only the order of nature at a fundamental level but how important it has been to our development. High-brow analysis aside, it’s just nice to see the forest and feel the breeze on a cool, sunny day. This is called biophilic design.
One way to instantly bring this into the office is simply to add in nature. Straightforward environments with white cubicles and standard ceiling tiles can be uplifted dramatically by adding indoor potted plants and trees while installing vibrant ceiling baffles to invoke wonder and peace.
After all, nature is big. A great coworking space design steeped in nature makes employees feel the peaceful aspects of the forest while hard at work, including impressive ceiling installations that mimic the open air and clouds in a beautiful blue sky. Companies can readily capture the same feeling of going on a hike with friends as employees sitting together in the trees working on progress.
“Open Lobby” Featuring: SoftGrid® by Arktura
The big-air concept of nature is a significant psychological concept — no one wants to feel trapped. To counter this, workplaces look to have tall ceilings or even sections of multistoried buildings with the floor above partially open.
While this is a great start, there has to be restraint involved. Too big of a space can be imposing — to moderate this spectrum, adding aesthetically pleasing, suspended ceiling baffles to an otherwise giant ceiling is the aesthetic break a room needs to feel sizable yet comfortable.
As in this example, a massive space with comfortable couches and calming ceiling baffles is a fantastic place for coworkers to meet after lunch and hammer out the rest of their workday.
“Studio Workspace” Featuring: SoftGrid® by Arktura
Along the lines of large, open areas, why not install a little space within? Allowing individuals to make their own choices is an important aspect of well-being, as each individual has unique needs. Perhaps a small group of employees, relatively similar and the reason they are friends, might want to take their small community into a space while still being among the rest.
In this coworking space design example, intriguing baffles create a comfortable sense of community while a shipping container-esque installation in the room provides an extra quiet space that tunes to the needs of a diverse office community.
“Statement Ceilings” Featuring: SoftGrid® by Arktura
As mentioned previously regarding architectural aesthetics, bland is not beneficial. We as individuals need interesting surroundings to get our great brains working. Tall ceilings are great, but tall and bland ceilings miss the mark.
To remedy this, our SoftGrid Duo color baffles at Arktura are installed on an otherwise boring ceiling and transform this long room into something intriguing and comforting. The undulations created by the contrasting colors of the ceiling baffles present the calming motion of waves, allowing those relaxing in the blue chairs to gaze upon something that incites wonder while they are hard at work.
Cordoned-off coworking spaces aren’t all bad — sometimes, they are necessary. Maybe one team really needs to be together for a project, and while they are mentally together, there’s something pleasing about being able to still be around the rest and even see them.
In this video, the variety of small coworking space designs are beautifully showcased. Our acoustic panels and partitions divide an otherwise open space into mini meeting rooms. Not only are these partitions visually exciting with their patterning and colors, but they also remain see-through. This is a great boon for communal work and further promotes the idea that there is a work family achieving a goal together, even if teams need to break off into smaller groups from time to time.
“SC Telco Federal Credit Union” Greenville, SC, Little, Tim Buchman (Photographer), Featuring: Atmosphera® by Arktura
In this example, we see again an open-air space with accent-color chairs beneath an open ceiling. While the loft look of exposed ceilings is very popular, bare ceilings and ductwork can readily be improved upon with biophilic ceiling baffles.
“Modern Office Space” Featuring: SoftScreen® by Arktura
This coworking space represents more of that “hard work” environment where employees need all of their tools at their disposal at a desk. Even so, there’s no reason to have to do this alone in a cubicle cage. In this example, the repeating pattern of triangles and lines that add up to an image is something you can’t look away from. Our modular paneling injects a positive aesthetic while the open nature of the patterning retains a sense of community.
“Zillow” Seattle, WA, JPC Architects, Featuring: Sphera® by Arktura
Let’s take a step back in the life of this room and imagine what it used to look like. It was once just a plain break room with a long, gray-painted ceiling. While gray is being used artistically more and more nowadays to provide great contrast, a block of gray inspires few.
To counter this, the office re-painted the ceiling bright blue to eliminate the monotony and went a step further to complete the design by installing cloud-like baffles. Paired with modern lighting and minimalist furniture, that uninspiring breakroom has been transformed into a fun working area, breeding creativity and boosting efficiency.
Let’s take a step back in the life of this room and imagine what it used to look like. It was once just a plain break room with a long, gray-painted ceiling. While gray is being used artistically more and more nowadays to provide great contrast, a block of gray inspires few.
To counter this, the office re-painted the ceiling bright blue to eliminate the monotony and went a step further to complete the design by installing cloud-like baffles. Paired with modern lighting and minimalist furniture, that uninspiring breakroom has been transformed into a fun working area, breeding creativity and boosting efficiency.
“PwC HQ” Los Angeles, CA, AECOM (Architect), Featuring: Solutions Studio® by Arktura
The ocean has and will forever ignite the imagination, most of which derives from the comforting rolling of waves. When it comes to modular paneling to differentiate workspaces within a single room, why not give them some undulations? In this design, an undulating panel provides great visual comfort that might otherwise invoke sterility with hard lines and edges.
The vast majority of companies looking to significantly boost workplace efficiency by concentrating on fantastic coworking space design do not need to tear down their building and start over. When it comes time to design coworking spaces that increase efficiency, the simple injection of ceiling baffles or wall panels can absolutely transform the most mundane offices into something artistic.
With aesthetics leading the way, our architectural wall and ceiling baffles at Arktura also provide intriguing lighting configurations, as well as acoustical control. The sum of these design points can effectively enhance any office into a space employees feel comfortable and happy to be in.
For more information on how to design the most optimal coworking space, contact our experts today.
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