Humanizing Workspaces
By: Barnali Nandi Mazumder
Tags: Co Working Spaces, Office Culture, Workspaces, Community, Startup

Humanizing Workspaces

Illustration by @chinmayikaushik

Back to the past

In the past, ‘energy-sucking’ buildings were disguised as offices — furnished with trails of shredded paper, lipstick-stained disposal coffee cups, faux plants, and dead silence. People were assigned to their workstations, meeting deadline after deadline with squinting eyes and shallow breaths. The only audible sounds were that of people typing and heels clicking on the tiled floor. Lunch breaks were no different: they spent their breaks multitasking, as they shoved spoonfuls of food into their mouths and sent this mail and read that document. The few times they left their desks voluntarily was either to answer nature’s call or attend cake-cutting ceremonies. They squinted away at the laptop screen and counted the hours when they could go home and wash the stress away.

Illustration by @chinmayikaushik

And so, the cycle continued where the office and home became two different hemispheres of life: work zone and relaxation zone. As the working hours superseded the idle hours, life became increasingly stressed with little or no breathing space.

What’s new?

Now fast forward to 2019, the present. Productivity is the mantra as usual. What separates this new-era office mechanism from the past is the ideology that productivity does not supersede an individual’s personal growth and well-being. Architects and designers have formed alliances against the forces of work stress and tried to design spaces that are efficient yet creative. Sustainability is the key. They believe sustainable spatial designs do not just make the earth greener but also improves an individual’s overall life.

How the new?

What aided designers and architects in this process is the discovery of the middle space that challenged traditional workspaces. This middle space is the culmination of the three important spheres of a person’s life: home, work, and leisure. This middle space offers the ideal experience of making one comfortable and motivated enough to be productive. It turns an office into an all-in-one space where you have higher chances of being your best version.

Illustration by @chinmayikaushik

What makes this possible is an engaging community. A community drives an individual to make the effort to do more than what is required of him/her. A great community is a built-in network that not only takes care of your day-to-day issues at work but also enables you to interact with an empathetic team of members. Building symbiotic relationships with members of other groups make it easier to learn and develop inter-disciplinary skills leading to a holistic career graph.

Human-centric processes in co-working spaces stimulate multi-level interaction and build a safe environment for each member to be themselves. The middle space of the three core areas of a person’s life centers around this concept of creating a people-friendly ecosystem.

The human race has come a long way — from closed office spaces to open and sustainable spaces driving creativity and productivity. Co-working spaces certainly help people tap their potential, enabling them to emerge braver and more confident of themselves and their ideas.