7 ways architecture studios will change after the pandemic
People can’t wait to go back to “normal”. Governments have started to implement plans for re-opening business and letting people go back to work. However, after adapting ourselves and breaking myths about productivity while working remotely, the question is inevitable: Do we really want to go back to normal?
Here are 7 things that could change in the architecture industry in the coming times for the good.
1. Flexible schedule
For approximately the last five weeks, most architecture studios have had their employees working from home. Studios of all different sizes ranging from 2 to thousands of employees have been forced to adapt.
We have shown developers, stakeholders, and management that we can deliver good work without being physically in the office from nine to five. We are showing the true values of how architects love their jobs.
At the same time, this situation has helped a lot of families cope with kids not being able to attend school.
In the future, a more balanced week with three days in the office and two days working remotely would not be out of the question. It would allow us to have two intensive focus days at home for task that require less distractions, while leaving the other three days for tasks that require collaborative activities in the office. This would also benefit the so searched work-life balance and allow parents to be more present in the day-to-day of the children.
2. Shifts
If we go to the office just 3 days week, that means our desks will sit empty for the 40% of the time, which feels like a waste of space. We can improve that by staggering the shifts of people, helping to create a safer environment. Having a floating desk instead of dedicated computers would help reduce the fixed costs of the company. At the same time, given that desks can be used by anyone, we will have to implement more strict cleaning protocols on a day-to-day basis to make it safe for everyone to use them.
3. The office as a gathering and socializing space
The concept of an office as the place where we go to work is dead. Think of it this way: this pandemic has shown that it is not healthy to work everyone so close to each other. Remote working has become a true game changer and it can help to change the perception of offices as places where we go to socialize, network, and collaborate. Brainstorming, focus groups, and presentations could become the must activities for the office. Adapting our current meeting rooms to become more spacious would help to carry these activities in a more safe way and allow us to socialize in a less virtual way when not working remotely.
4. From remote desktop to remote working
This pandemic has brought to light we already had the tools to work remotely, but we just were not making good use of them. Thanks to IT departments, the deployment of these tools has been a very fast way to ensure everyone could remote desktop to their office computer from home and be connected to co-workers in a seamless way.
This has been a huge success to ensure that we were all safe and able to work given the short time we had to adapt to the new situation. However, connecting remotely to a computer in the office that is sitting in a cubicle alone is not efficient and is a huge waste of space. We are wasting a lot of real estate space just for an empty computer. In addition, if by mistake we turn that computer off, someone has to go there to turn it back on, and believe me, it happens! I did that mistake!
So a transition from remote desktop to remote working is the next step. We will achieve that by working primary with software in the cloud and connecting directly to a virtual machine or a physical computer that is in a server room. This option would leverage our office spaces, allow IT to have more control over the assets, and truly allow us to work from anywhere anytime with instant access to everything.
5. New Paradigm for productivity
How many hours did you work last week? This is a question that only you can answer nowadays. You are not in the office, so nobody is watching you. Clauses in contracts like “office hours are 9 to 5” become more blurry, because trust become the most important aspect of the contract when you work remotely.
In the new reality productivity can only be measure by you achievements. A mindset based on goals and objective will leverage people from the time constrains and the misconception that more time is more productivity.
6. Smaller office spaces
If we implement the measures from the previous points we will be truly remote working without the need to have a lonely computer in our cubicle sitting alone. We have also established that we only need to be physically in the office 3 days per week and with staggered shifts , but why do it?.
The benefit of all that is not only health. We could reduce the office needs of space around 30–40%. Do we really need that big office or can we downsize and save some dollars in fixed costs?
7. Democratizing the office
One thing that will never change, working physically in the office or remote working is that we can’t work as isolated cells. We need to communicate, interact, and transfer knowledge between all the team. With apps like Teams or Slack, this has never been easier.
These tools help social interactions feel less intrusive than approaching someone face to face. At the same time, because they are like a chat, they are more personable than an email while maintaining the ability for people to reply at their own pace.
This is a great opportunity to foster interactions between people in the company at different stages of their career, foster faster mentoring sessions, and debating knowledge and ideas easily.
Who has not felt intimidated when they had to go to the office of the “big boss” to tell him something? Or maybe you thought you had a great idea you wanted to share with him, but he was always flying up and down so you felt “you would waste his time” by approaching him. With these tools you are just a click away!
Thanks for reading, if you like it please consider sharing or liking it!
Stay safe!
