The new concept of flexibility in workspaces emerges as crucial to meet the needs of today and tomorrow. Let’s explore together what “flexible space” entails and how it intertwines with the key elements of hospitality, interior design and destination office.
The decentralization of work has been a process underway for years: from the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic to today, the possibility of carrying out one’s tasks remotely and managing meetings and appointments directly behind a screen has confirmed the advancement of a change that will increasingly push towards hybrid and diverse forms of smart working. The metamorphosis of office space, or workspace, is a direct consequence of an increasingly widespread necessity: that of managing one’s private and work life in symbiosis. But if it’s possible to work anywhere today, what role does the office play for the company, and, above all, can it ever return to being the quintessential workplace?
In the reassessment of workspaces, the main objective is to offer an added value, thus becoming a place where one doesn’t have to go to work, but where the employee or entrepreneur wants to go to spend quality time both in terms of work and in terms of networking and the way of experiencing the workspace in question. In this sense, we talk about the destination office, a workplace that encourages even those who don’t need to do so to go to the office. And here is where the concept of office flexibility comes into play.
But what do we mean when we use the term “flexibility“? Flexible work, in itself, is an expression that denotes any work model that doesn’t adhere to traditional work hours or locations. It’s therefore a new way of conceiving workspace that doesn’t fall into traditional categories. This can mean working in different spaces within the office, from a workstation to perhaps a co-working area. Therefore, a flexible workspace is designed to support employees with dynamic and ever-changing needs: workers can choose the office area that best suits the circumstance, enabling them to maximize results and carry out their tasks without inhibiting daily productivity.
Currently, the estimated value of flexible workspace globally is approximately $26 billion, and this is just the beginning of a rapidly expanding phenomenon. But we’re not just talking about monetizing the phenomenon when we mention flexibility because 89% of people working independently feel happier when they have embraced the flexibility movement.
Let’s explore what are the most important advantages of this new concept:
1. Flexibility & agility
With flexible workspaces, companies have the agility needed to respond to all market changes, allowing them to expand into new offices and customize their rhythms.
2. Cost-effectiveness
With flexible workspace solutions, every employer and thus companies can save significantly on office costs, while still providing a wide range of experiences and services to their employees.
3. Networking Opportunities
Flexible workspaces help foster a community of employees and employers from various sectors and backgrounds who, in traditional settings, would be difficult to meet.
The concept of flexibility is at the core of Stella’s activity in designing workspaces aligned with the main trend in this context: harnessing the office revolution that, from the end of the pandemic onwards, is rapidly rising to drive the change towards the office of the future. Flexibility in the workspace saves companies money and makes them competitive in terms of talent attraction and, secondly, talent retention. The daily practice of the office contributes to underscore this great potential, namely in one of the ways flexibility translates. This is Activity Based Working (ABW), “a flexible and dynamic approach based on the idea that workers will be more productive when they have the right spaces for their needs”.
Activity Based Working involves introducing diversified workspaces in the office based on the needs of the workers, and it’s a way of rethinking and redesigning spaces so that the layout perfectly suits the activities performed by employees. Besides Activity Based Working there are additional concepts as smart working and hybrid working: smart and hybrid work provide a real opportunity to pursue concrete balance between life and work, to implement a work and therefore also a workplace that meets all the needs related to the day and to the activities of the workers.
These are the concepts on which Meravili-House of Business is based: the new Stella-branded location, which will be a tangible demonstration of the new conceptual and spatial configuration of the office according to the Activity Based Working approach, each work-related (and not only) need of the workspace user will be properly accommodated.
In addition to the wide variety of environments – which will include serviced offices, meeting rooms, phone booths, a co-working area for informal work, a clubhouse, a lounge area and a refined bar – and the events component as well, with the space Wonder, which will be the perfect addition to complete the circle of services offered by a location that, thanks to its classic and refined aesthetics, will host a last generation office, where Stella’s values, grafted into a context of extreme elegance, will produce a result in which everything has a space and the space has everything.
