ABSTRACT
From the rise of open-plan offices to activity-based working supportive environments, workplaces changed dramatically over time. The removal of physical barriers and individual offices to introduce open-plan layouts aimed to facilitate a permanent flow of incidental opportunities for work, to learn from one another, collaborate, and ultimately innovate. The further shift towards reduced office footprints meant the adoption of landscapes that support various work activities of a mobile workforce where desk ownership may or may not be removed. The successful implementation of these changes, which were prompted by the need to encourage collaboration, has depended on the office design supporting the work and the workers’ ability to learn how to harness the office infrastructure available to them. Post-pandemic, office infrastructure needs to embrace the possibility of shrinking and expanding to support the needs of a workforce that is no longer bound to the same location and time. This chapter reviews different types of office layout designs with a view of identifying key lessons relevant to static, untethered and adaptive workplaces, including reflections on the needs of an unshackled workforce post-pandemic.
