Redesigned offices give workers freedom to hatch fresh ideas

We are supposed to be in the era of working remotely. What with cloud computing and teleconferencing, desk jockeys can technically contribute from anywhere - and according to a recent Stanford University experiment at the Ctrip call centre in China, the productivity of staff who volunteered to work from home during a nine-month period increased by 13 per cent.

Instead, however, companies are investing a lot of money to make the office a more enticing place. The question is why.

Firms might not be as upfront as Yahoo boss Marissa Mayer, who said, after her controversial decision to end work-from-home flexibility, that "some of the best ideas come from pulling two different ideas together". But with Google and Facebook leading the way by offering free food and onsite adult playgrounds, others have followed, and now defined social gathering places are becoming the new workplace normal.

Ramesh Subramaniam, director - design at M Moser Associates, a workplace specialist - sees this strategy not as a ploy by bosses to keep us back at the grind for longer, but rather, a means to get the creative juices flowing.

"The first purpose of any workspace is to establish itself as the primary point for collaboration and interaction - in other words, be a catalyst to build or establish relationships that form the backbone of any company," he says.

"The office starts to represent a social zone and begins to move away from the sterile environments of yesteryear."