As architecture, workstyles, and employee needs change, we continually strive to be on the forefront of innovation and designing solutions for the future of work. This spirit has been especially important during the vast amount of change we have gone through over the last six months.
We also recognize that there are many other great minds out there, so we connect with partners in our industry who are working toward the same goal of creating the best spaces for the people who use them.
The question everyone is trying to work on right now is, what will the future look like? Work Design Magazine came up with the idea to ask the very designers that were living in the middle of this vast change. They created the Next Work Environment Competition to give designers and teams the opportunity to share their innovative ideas for the path forward. As a valued partner and contributor, we wanted to support them and those who would be submitting their innovative design ideas.
Given the challenges of COVID-19 and the issues it has created for our health, economy, and society, the team at Work Design wanted to inspire people to submit innovative ideas to create safe, productive, and comfortable work environments. The goal of this competition was to consider options for new work environments that may be used by organizations to get people back to work quickly in safe, stress-free and productive spaces.
Work Design Publisher, Bob Fox said that one of the key observations he had from this competition was that people and people’s health took great importance. Comfort and safety were top of mind and almost all submissions address “health concern”. Healthy and safe working environments was another key focus, and human connectedness was the second most noted theme.
Hundreds of entries later, the jurors have made their final decision in the first-ever Next Work Environment Competition! Across all seven categories, a broad range of creative solutions came in from around the globe.
