Table tennis is out and private rooms are back in. As working patterns stabilise after the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers are responding by redesigning workspaces for an era in which people spend less time in the office, but use it for more specific tasks than before.

Engineering consultancy Arup, building a workspace in Dexus’ 123 Albert Street tower in Brisbane, is cutting back floor area dedicated to individual desks to 30 per cent, compared with a 40 per cent to 45 per cent average in its offices before the pandemic.