It’s around this time every year that we start looking ahead and turning our focus to the upcoming trends and movements within the industry to watch out for. From colours and textures right through to furniture, space configuration and workplace technology, we make it our mission to stay ahead of the most current office refurbishment and interior design trends to inform our transformation projects. This year we’re doing more of the same, albeit with a fresh perspective centralising the post-pandemic workspace.

It goes without saying that the COVID crisis, which has dominated 2020 so profoundly, has had a significant impact on the trends we’re expecting to see taking the forefront next year. That said, as businesses continue to adapt and evolve, we cannot let Coronavirus considerations eclipse all of the other elements which are in play when it comes to fostering an effective and engaging working environment.

Keeping with the theme of more conscious behaviours surrounding what Steelcase are dubbing the Density, Geometry and Division of the workplace, assigned desks and hot-desking areas are expected to fall into the shadows. Instead, we predict a rise in shared work settings and collaboration zones with more soft seating, idea-sharing resource and a more modular configuration so that they can be adapted to requirement and a more fluid approach to teamwork.