Now that pandemic-containment measures are being relaxed, raising the possibility of a full return to the office, this is precisely the time to consider what the working world and the office ecosystem will look like in future: Will we revert to the pre-pandemic world, or should we expect to see shifts? If there are shifts, what will the working and office world of the future look like? Even before the pandemic, that world had already been experiencing a paradigm shift, brought about by the progressive digitalization of our work and lives. The pandemic gave major new impetus to the expansion of working models that are more flexible in terms of timing and location, the spread of agile working and also the altered expectations of employees. Almost every organization has had to grapple with the questions of how future-proof their working and office structures are at present and what adjustments they should make to their office spaces and buildings in response to the huge momentum in this area.
It was in order to answer these questions that researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, as part of the Office 21® innovation network and working with the partner companies involved, carried out a scenario-based process. Its goal was to think ahead, collaboratively and without preconceptions of the future, about the various influencing factors and how they would play out, and to distil these into a holistic big picture. The study, “Beyond multispace — scenarios of altered requirements in office spaces and buildings in the urban context between now and 2030”, which is now published, contains four scenarios that describe possible developments in the working worlds of the future. The scenarios are intended to indicate various possible developments, providing organizations with practical support for adjusting to them and deriving suitable recommended actions.
Office environments as potential spaces: Thinking ahead about developments from multiple perspectives
The four scenarios developed, “New free world”, “Back from the future”, “New green Europe” and “Individual focus”, lay out different working worlds. The first describes a working world with much greater flexibility, the second a working world that is more cautious about change and more oriented toward the pre-pandemic era, the third is a highly ecologically conscious working world and the fourth is a working world that prioritizes individuality. The study describes the effects of each in various thematic areas and on office spaces and buildings. As an illustration, each scenario concludes with a typical working day, drawn up using personas.
Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO
