Dawn of the ‘agile office’ frees staff to work, and play, where they want
Google is credited with popularising playful office design intended to raise productivity and employee satisfaction. The trend for multifunctional spaces with social areas, flexi desks and few corner offices has spread to Hong Kong
While Google didn’t invent the idea of creating “the happiest workplace on Earth”, it was possibly among the first companies to see a connection between employee satisfaction and workplace productivity.
The technology firm tried to motivate employees with playful office design that included (in various locations around the world) nap pods, giant hammocks, slides between floors, and meeting rooms in the unlikeliest settings – among them a 1960s caravan in their Amsterdam office.
Other companies soon caught on to Google’s new-age design, and a trend was born.
It has been 13 years since Los Angeles-based Clive Wilkinson Architects broke the mould of traditional office design with its open-plan model for Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters. The architecture firm won the job through a competition, but the client still needed some convincing before the project was approved.
Today, the walls keep tumbling down in workplaces around the world as bespoke office interiors adopt the “agile office” model.