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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchExtraordinary officing is not a particular floor plan or a collection of fashionable furniture. It is a design-and-construction approach that matches space, technology and building performance to the way an organization actually works. The best workplace may combine shared settings, private rooms, quiet areas, informal breakaway spaces and event-capable rooms—then give employees a clear choice of where each task should happen.
That outcome requires more than an open-plan fit-out. Layout, air quality, furniture comfort, storage, acoustic control, privacy, access, technology and the ability to change the space all shape the daily experience. A successful project studies work patterns and culture first, tests proposed settings at full scale, prepares the technology and trains people before move-in.
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What “extraordinary officing” means
The term describes alternative and high-performance workplace models built around activities rather than a single universal workstation arrangement. Building Design + Construction identifies activity-based work, coworking, mobile officing and distributed workplace models as part of this shift. In each model, the office is a platform for different kinds of work: concentrated individual tasks, confidential conversations, team problem-solving, learning, client meetings and social connection.
An extraordinary workplace is therefore measured by performance, not novelty. A striking interior that leaves people overheated, distracted, unable to find a private room or without a reliable place to store equipment is not high-performing. A restrained fit-out that supports concentration, collaboration, comfort and easy change can be.
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The outcomes to design for
- Choice: people can select a setting that suits the task instead of forcing every activity into one desk type.
- Focus and confidentiality: quiet rooms, enclosed offices and controlled sound are available when work requires them.
- Collaboration: teams have settings for informal exchanges, workshops, town halls and project work.
- Comfort and health: air quality, lighting, temperature, ergonomics and furniture support sustained use.
- Adaptability: the floor plate, services and furniture can be rearranged as teams, technology and work practices change.
Why copying an open office usually fails
Alternative officing is highly customized to an organization’s work practices, culture and objectives. A plan borrowed from another company may have the wrong ratio of desks to rooms, inadequate storage, poor acoustic separation or no provision for confidential work. Before drawing a layout, identify how work is performed and where the current environment creates friction.
Useful questions include: Which teams need daily face-to-face coordination? How often are people away from their assigned desk? Which conversations involve confidential information? Do visitors, clients or the public use the workplace? Which equipment must remain connected? How much paper, material or personal storage is genuinely required? What changes are expected in headcount or team structure?
Occupancy observations, interviews, surveys and workstation-use data turn those questions into a program. The goal is not to maximize seats; it is to provide the right mix of settings and a realistic capacity for peak days.
A design process that produces extraordinary results
1. Establish the brief from work patterns
Bring human resources, facilities leaders, information-technology specialists and representative employees into the briefing process. Document work modes, schedules, privacy requirements, visitor journeys, accessibility needs and cultural objectives. Include future scenarios rather than designing only for today’s headcount.
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A full-size mock-up reveals issues that drawings conceal: sightlines, chair clearances, screen reflections, reach ranges, sound transfer, lighting and the practical size of a meeting table. Invite employees to walk through the mock-up, work in it and comment before the design is frozen.
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5. Coordinate construction and technology
Plan power, data, wireless coverage, displays, room-booking systems, videoconferencing, access control and security alongside the architecture. Technology should not be an afterthought squeezed into a finished ceiling or furniture layout. Construction oversight is essential so that acoustic details, ventilation, lighting controls and connectivity are installed as designed.
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6. Prepare people for the move
Shared settings change behavior. Explain how to choose a workspace, reserve a room, store personal items, handle confidential material and keep focus areas quiet. Provide training before move-in, publish simple etiquette and give teams a way to report problems. Change management is part of project delivery, not a launch-day announcement.
Plan a mix of settings, not one universal desk
Contemporary workplaces combine activity-based or shared settings with private, quiet and breakaway spaces. The following program illustrates the decisions a design team should make; the exact quantities must come from occupancy and work-pattern analysis.
| Setting | Best for | Key design requirements | Common failure to avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team neighborhood | Frequent coordination and project work | Shared tools, nearby writable surfaces, dependable power and a clear path to quieter rooms | Making every seat permanently open and noisy |
| Focus room or library | Concentration, calls and sensitive tasks | Acoustic absorption, visual control, low interruption and suitable lighting | Providing too few rooms for peak demand |
| Enclosed private office | Confidential conversations, intensive focus or controlled access | Speech privacy, lockable storage and access that does not isolate the occupant from support | Assuming an office is private without testing sound transmission |
| Project room | Workshops, sprint planning and temporary teams | Flexible tables, display technology, writable walls and furniture that can be reconfigured | Fixing the room to one table arrangement |
| Multipurpose room | Training, town halls, mock trials, presentations and client events | Robust audiovisual systems, movable furniture, lighting scenes and simple conversion between layouts | Designing a room that serves only one event type |
| Breakaway or social space | Informal conversation, decompression and chance encounters | Comfortable seating, varied acoustics and separation from focus areas | Putting social activity beside desks that require concentration |
| Touchdown or mobile-work point | Short visits, hybrid days and staff without a fixed seat | Easy login, power, ergonomic adjustment and secure storage | Leaving mobile users without a dependable workstation |
Open plan or private offices: which works better?
Neither arrangement is universally superior. Open settings can support visibility, rapid interaction and efficient sharing of space, but they expose people to speech, movement and interruptions. Private offices improve control and confidentiality, yet a corridor of assigned rooms can consume area, reduce spontaneous contact and become difficult to resize.
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|---|---|---|---|
| Space ownership | Shared desks and team zones increase utilization when attendance varies. | Assigned rooms provide predictable territory but can sit empty. | Use shared settings for variable demand and reserve enclosed rooms for tasks that need them. |
| Collaboration | Easy visual contact and informal exchange. | Interaction is more scheduled and separated. | Place collaboration zones near, but acoustically apart from, focus areas. |
| Privacy and sound | Requires strong acoustic planning and behavioral rules. | Better control, provided partitions, doors and services prevent sound leakage. | Offer a gradient from open to enclosed settings. |
| Employee choice | Choice is meaningful only when quiet alternatives exist. | Choice may be limited if every room is assigned. | Provide bookable rooms, quiet areas and varied postures alongside shared workpoints. |
| Technology | Needs ubiquitous wireless, power and room-booking support. | Needs consistent in-room collaboration and access systems. | Standardize the user experience while allowing different room types. |
| Future change | Furniture and neighborhoods can be reconfigured relatively quickly. | Walls and building services make changes more disruptive. | Use demountable or strategically located partitions and accessible service routes where appropriate. |
One legal-workplace analysis described the move toward same-size private offices, shared amenities, multipurpose rooms and reduced paper storage. Caitlin Turner summarized the intent this way: “With one-size officing, we are shrinking the ‘I’ space and returning it to more ‘we’ space.” That does not eliminate private work; it reallocates space so confidentiality and concentration are supported without giving every person a permanently oversized room.
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Designing for hybrid and mobile work
Hybrid work changes demand by day and by hour. A floor that works on a quiet Tuesday may fail when most of a team arrives for a workshop. Model peak attendance, not just average attendance, and provide a deliberate mix of reservable and unassigned settings.
Technology that must be planned early
- Reliable wireless coverage and sufficient electrical capacity at every workpoint.
- Single sign-on or another simple method for accessing shared desks and rooms.
- Room-booking displays and policies that release unused reservations.
- Videoconferencing cameras, microphones, speakers and displays sized for equitable participation by remote staff.
- Secure printing, storage and access control for confidential information.
- Digital wayfinding and clear signage so visitors and employees can find the right setting without interrupting others.
Technology is enabling organizations to free up space, but reducing desks without providing dependable digital infrastructure simply transfers the problem to meeting rooms, corridors and personal devices. Test the complete user journey—from booking to login to a hybrid meeting—in the mock-up.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Comfort, air quality and acoustics are performance issues
High-performance workplaces receive strong marks on layout, air quality, furniture comfort, storage and privacy/access. These criteria are interconnected. A compact plan may save area but fail if it creates glare, stale air, uncomfortable chairs or nowhere to put equipment.
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Furniture and ergonomics
Provide adjustable chairs, work surfaces that fit the user and task, monitor support, sit-stand options where they are appropriate, and consistent access to power. Shared furniture must be quick to adjust; otherwise people will avoid it or work in poor postures. Include lockable personal storage when employees do not have assigned desks.
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Acoustic control
Use a combination of distance, absorptive ceilings and walls, screens, enclosed rooms and sound-masking strategies where suitable. Acoustic panels can help balance open collaboration with focus, but they cannot compensate for a missing quiet-room program or a door that leaks speech. Test speech privacy in representative conditions rather than judging the finish by appearance.
Indoor environment
Coordinate ventilation, temperature control, daylight, glare management and lighting scenes with the furniture plan. Breakout areas and collaboration rooms often have higher, shorter-duration occupancy than desk neighborhoods; their ventilation and controls should reflect that use. Accessible controls and clear reporting channels help facilities teams correct local problems quickly.
Future-proofing the office build-out
Future-proofing means reducing the cost and disruption of the next change, not predicting a single perfect future. Keep the structural and service strategy as flexible as the furniture strategy.
- Use a regular planning grid where possible so rooms and neighborhoods can be resized.
- Provide accessible routes for power and data, with spare capacity for additional devices.
- Locate wet areas, heavy equipment and major risers where they will not prevent reasonable reconfiguration.
- Select durable, replaceable finishes and modular furniture components.
- Standardize room technology interfaces while allowing rooms to serve different activities.
- Document settings, equipment and maintenance requirements so future teams can alter the space safely.
- Plan phased construction or swing space when the organization must remain operational during the build.
Designers should also schedule post-occupancy reviews. Compare actual room use, comfort complaints, technology failures and employee feedback with the original brief, then adjust furniture, policies or space allocation. A workplace should continually evolve rather than remain fixed at the moment of handover.
What the evidence can—and cannot—say about productivity
Productivity claims depend on the organization, measurement method and operating conditions. Site Selection’s July 2000 award report attributed a 12 percent productivity increase and a 10 percent turnover reduction to First Horizon Home Loan’s new open-space headquarters. That is a historical, company-specific result, not a prediction for every open office. Treat it as an example of a reported outcome and define your own baseline before claiming improvement.
Useful measures include workstation and room utilization, time spent searching for a suitable space, meeting-room reliability, acoustic and thermal complaints, technology support calls, employee retention and project-delivery indicators. Pair quantitative measures with interviews so a high utilization rate is not mistaken for a good experience.
A practical delivery checklist
- Write the work-pattern, culture, privacy and growth assumptions into the project brief.
- Collect occupancy, meeting, storage and technology data before fixing the plan.
- Develop multiple schemes and compare dedicated versus shared space, acoustic control, accessibility and future-change cost.
- Build and test full-scale mock-ups with employees and facilities staff.
- Coordinate architecture, engineering, furniture and technology as one system.
- Procure and configure room-booking, videoconferencing, access and storage systems before move-in.
- Train users on settings, reservations, confidentiality and etiquette.
- Monitor performance after occupancy and make measured adjustments.
Extraordinary officing is the disciplined alignment of people, place and technology. Open collaboration, private focus, comfort and adaptability are not competing slogans; they are requirements to balance through evidence, testing and continued management. The strongest construction project is the one that gives employees an appropriate setting for the task in front of them—and can change when that task changes.
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