June 07, 2021
In Future Smart, Teknion addresses the sudden change in the workplace – and the world – and how the past year has challenged us to all think differently. This knowledge-based piece focuses on future workplace layouts, innovative product design, and empathetic people-first office spaces. Teknion defines “Future Smart” as being able to manage uncertainty through anticipating change, improving resilience and adapting to quickly changing conditions. To be “Future Smart” as a workplace is to be agile, ready and willing to reshuffle priorities, and to adapt to new realities as they emerge.
“Change is inevitable, whether slow and steady or as sudden as a cloudburst. All of human society has just experienced enormous structural change in a very short time.” says Steve Delfino, Vice President of Corporate Marketing & Product Management at Teknion. “As we consider what the new post-pandemic workplace will look and feel like, we need to be Future Smart.”
By providing mobile, modular and multi-functional products for a “future fit” office, Teknion is maximizing flexibility, providing choices, and serving the needs for both privacy and collaboration. Furniture solutions that accommodate the various rhythms of change, are designed to move, and balance trends and longevity are crucial tools for a Future Smart workplace.
Seven planning principles are outlined in Future Smart, among them is:
60% presence, 100% participation. While future scenarios are still ambiguous, WFH has arguably uncoupled work from the office. Over the course of 2020, people became accustomed to flexible work hours, an occasional or non-existent commute and the ability to self-manage in the home environment. Yet data supports the premise that most workers want to return to the office – a safe, secure office – for perhaps 3 or 4 days a week.
Assuming office occupancy will stabilize post-vaccine at about 60-70 percent, a well-designed workplace will deploy furniture, space and high-and low-tech tools to support 100% participation however employees are distributed across space and time. Future Smart shows a variety of configurations to successfully achieve this balance and dives deeper into the challenges and benefits of this new work model.
Teknion’s latest product launches including the Routes collection, Bene Box, and the Essa task chair exemplify qualities of the “future fit” office. Routes is designed to allow teams to create flexible, utility-driven, and engaging workspaces quickly and efficiently. Bene Box is a modular system that can be arranged and re-arranged to suit any context. Perfect for relaxed and comfortable professional settings or home office set-ups, the Essa light task chair is ideal for any application.
The future requires thoughtful, intentional planning and highly adaptable products to create a “future fit” office. Integrated with interior architecture, Teknion products are designed to create an agile work environment that serves all those who occupy the office and the many ways that people work.