Covid-related hygiene concerns are forcing companies to reconceptualize the modern office
The first two decades of the 21st century saw the rise of the open-plan office. The cubicle — that much maligned symbol of corporate oppression — was thrown out right along with the fax machine. It was replaced by big tables with individual tech workspaces, a setup not dissimilar to the communal worktables that millennials sat around in elementary school.
Or, if you want to take a darker view, not too different from the pre-tech factories that filled the spaces now inhabited by white collar workers. Just replace sewing machines with MacBooks and you have a modern-day “factory.”
But the Covid-19 pandemic is forcing companies and designers to rethink the open-plan approach — and maybe rethink the idea of the “office” altogether. First, the lockdown sent everyone scrambling to transition hundreds of thousands people from an office environment to individual home offices. Now, as lockdowns start to ease across the world, companies are turning to interior designers who trained in the open-plan model and asking, “What now?”.
The answer is a combination of increased cleaning and sterilization methods, larger spaces between desks in order to comply with social distancing guidelines, a workforce that only comes into the office on certain days, and the cubicle. Yup — you read that right. Those grey, soul-crushing mini-walls are getting a makeover for the 21st century. And if you do end up going back to an office in the next few months, you’ll very likely be inhabiting one.
Are cubicles really the answer?
The contemporary cubicle resembles the cubicles in Office Space only insomuch as it’s a movable, temporary “wall” between workers. But that’s w ..
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