The ‘new normal’ for Brisbane CBD offices post-coronavirus

Social distancing, hygiene, increased space and privacy and restrictions on how you use the lift. For those about to return to the office, work will look dramatically different – especially if you work in a CBD tower.

THEY will be workplaces but not as we knew them.

That is the short answer to the question of what the “new normal” will be for Queensland’s millions of square metres of office space as businesses prepare to reopen their doors.

The lockdown to combat the novel coronavirus has been dubbed “the world’s greatest ever workplace experiment” with an overnight shift to people’s homes rather than offices becoming the dominant place of work.

“The workplace will be changed forever,” said Brisbane-based Hassell architecture firm principal and University of Queensland School of Architecture adjunct professor, Kirsti Simpson.

“And that change will be dramatic.”

Ms Simpson, a commercial and workplace design specialist, said there was a massive body of work occurring to consider how to retrofit every existing workplace to make them safe by addressing issues such as social distancing, hygiene measures, meeting room capacities and collaborative platforms.

Kirsti Simpson in the Brisbane office of Hassell Studio. Picture: Tertius Pickard

She said the open plan office model was likely to remain but become “more open”.

Desk space will become bigger, distancing between workstations greater, additional levels of screening will be fitted, there will be more planting so the office air is cleaner and more cleaning and hygiene stations.

“We’ve changed and this has forced us to push the envelope,” Ms Simpson said.

“Our thinking has been altered and that will be reflected in our workplaces.

“We will be very resistant to small desk configurations and will expect space in general but certainly more individual space,” she said.

Signs of the times: There are restrictions on the number of people who can travel in lifts. Picture: Glen Norris.

“Settings that provide the levels of comfort and privacy we have become accustomed to in our home environment are going to be the new normal.”

Ms Simpson said there would be more physical separation anticipated.

“Cramming in as many people as possible in order to make the environment as efficient as possible will be scaled back and there will be a greater sense of the requirement for more physical separation,” she said.

“That, logically, would suggest a bigger footprint but coupled with the notion there will be a much greater flexibility and ability to work from home across the working week.
“The level of occupation might stay the same, albeit the space will be occupied in a different way.

“The focus will be on more individual space with a greater degree of privacy so there’s no risk of infection.”

Brisbane CBD office towers are going to be changed forever due to COVID-19. Picture: Supplied

One of the biggest challenges for CBD towers accommodating hundreds of workers will be getting people up to their offices due to dramatic reductions in lift capacities.

“Even with staggered movement into their building and at 50 per cent of their staff capacity, one of our clients has estimated it will take their workforce three hours to get into the building,” Ms Simpson said.

“We have to make sure we learn from this and be prepared for if and when it ever happens again.

“This experience has really given us the opportunity to consider what we want to take forward into the next generation of workplaces.”

Ms Simpson said for the most part, changes in existing environments will likely be around policy, processes and behaviours.

“But the most significant changes that we’ll see will be in new developments and workplaces that haven’t yet been built,” she said.

According to a recent Knight Frank report Turbo-charging Change in the Global Workplace, the success of the rapid mobilisation of remote working as a corporate response to the COVID-19 crisis was likely to have longer-term implications for the way that businesses think about and structure their real estate portfolios.

“It will lead some to question whether they need office space and many more to agonise over whether they have the right space in the right places for the post COVID-19 world,” it states.

The report also says despite debate over the future of the coworking market “flexibility will continue to be in demand from business users”.

“Social distancing may serve to threaten true coworking, where staff from multiple businesses work cheek by jowl,” it says.

“But ‘space as a service’ … is likely to flourish post-crisis.”

“Far from representing the death of the office, COVID-19 will turbocharge trends that were already transforming the workplace and which will ultimately reconfigure both space and place in the post-crisis era,” the report states.

Originally published as The ‘new normal’ for Brisbane CBD offices post-coronavirus