01

What workplaces can learn from hotels

01

What workplaces can learn from hotels

Hotels are specifically designed to attract, entertain and indulge guests. This often leads to playful and striking spaces. A certain lustre is the critical ingredient for a hotel’s success; they provide an exclusive subscription to visitors, unlocking places in the city that are inaccessible to non-guests.

Offices have similar basic elements. They evolve around people, ideas and connections, and they thrive on interactive atmospheres. Workspaces create the foundation for a healthy workforce, facilitating organic growth and the transference of skills. As we emerge from the pandemic, we need to reflect on how workspaces can sustain urban centres while balancing individual needs for flexible and adaptable routines.

The Temple House. Photo © John Madden

Many companies will now pay extra to attract, nurture and retain their staff – their most critical investment. However, staff require greater flexibility from their workplaces than ever before, and this means businesses must meet them halfway rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach. Companies need to think creatively to incorporate different lifestyles, flexibility, and health and wellbeing into the workplace, regardless of whether that space is used for 3 hours or 3 days a week, or 24/7.

New design projects are leading the way by offering above and beyond end-of-trip facilities and attractive lobbies, while others are looking to hotels for inspiration, recreating the office as a lifestyle experience. They’re reconfiguring the DNA of the workplace with creativity, flexibility and softer furnishings, keeping mental health and wellbeing at their core. Similarly, new hotels like Birch have created expansive co-working spaces that allow the work-from-anywhere mindset to run free within a creative and relaxed setting (and between yoga classes). These are just two examples of how workspaces can be integrated into mixed-use buildings, catering to the needs of workers – whether they’re working or not.

← Previous page