Inside the Office of 2026: Not just desks and boardrooms

0:04Hello and welcome to this episode of Space by Stansons. We're actually talking to a range of people from key influencers to rising stars in workspace design. And my question for them is which space is going to be the busiest space in the workplace in 2026? Oh boy, it gets really interesting finding out where everyone's going to be, what the busiest part of the office is going to be. but also a little bit about where we think we're going to be creating spaces that we might not have had before. So what are the new emerging spaces coming into offices? What is being demanded? What's being requested by end clients for designers?

0:43And what are designers putting forward in their proposals and pitches when designing new office spaces? So a great listen. Before we roll, we've dropped space section on the website, stansons.co.uk forward slash space. So head over there. You can sign up for show notes where you get a weekly email just dropping the key timestamps, the key values and bullet points of each episode that drops fortnightly. So that's stansons.co.uk forward slash space. Head over there. Sign up for show notes. Now onto the episode. Let's roll. What space is going to be used most in 2026? Cocoon environments, I'm going to say.

1:27In a way, it's like, for me, they're coming back. I think we've sort of said that the office is all about collaboration and all about that sort of, you know, like getting together, you know, socialising, all of that sort of thing. I think we're seeing a pivot to how do I work effectively and, you know, without distraction. What do you think the busiest space in your office will be in 2026? so i would hope it's going to be our collaboration spaces um and i think the reason behind that is um i think if people can really get their heads around what the purpose is of coming into the office rather than working from home it's to actually collaborate ideate you know connect with people um and i think we are going to be experimenting with um spaces that are really designed um to do that um so different kind of spaces different furniture setups different mixes um but really trying to encourage people to you know shape their day in the office around that connection you know don't just come into the office and sit there and do the team's calls that you could have done at home you know actually think about the shape of the day um and and really use spaces to to kind of really maximize yeah connection ideas you know that that's what I would love to see there's been a little sort of space.

2:45I think the space in my mind that's going to be the next big space that we're going to be thinking about is meeting spaces that are soft. I think there's so many, like you see there's like boardrooms where it's just these cold surfaces. And I'm like, why don't we have more meeting rooms that are sofas? You know, I think there's something nice about having that kind of more softer approach. Everyone feels more relaxed, you know. and I just think we need more meeting rooms that have got kind of soft seating in it. And then for space, I think we've also seen the like so many different lounges. I think it's really on the rise because I think it makes people want to be there, especially in workplaces.

3:26You want to design a place that people want to be rather than what they have to be. But then I think to be different. I'll say I feel like the kitchen island in a workplace especially could be on the road because I think it's so nice when everyone is like on the lunch breaks and like gets together around it has a chat or it's a great space where everyone's like get all the materials out work with it I think we more collaboration spaces I think the kitchen island's a perfect place Ellie what space do you think will be the busiest in the office next year okay so it's a bit of a typical one but I think it would will be the kitchen the tea point area the breakout space um i really just think that a kitchen is like the heart of you know usually a home but also heart of the home oh gosh perfect yeah i really do think it's that yeah what space do you think will be the busiest in the office left yet well i'm not sure if it well

4:28Guy Stanley:busiest maybe i do i mean we we did it with virgin which is the bigger van space it's unbelievable will see how well used that is yeah every time you go into virgin's office now they you know they're hosting events they've got panel media panel discussions on they've got a fair to where they've got show you know show desks and people selling products and then they've got in lounge mode hotel mode so multifunctional space we're seeing that in quite a few of our projects event spaces is probably one of the busiest but a really interesting space we're looking at for one recent projects is actually almost pitch pods or zoom rooms so i know that obviously everyone has those kind of uh glass pods which they can take meetings in but an interesting point which one of our clients played recently is they hate that kind of generic zoo or team's background which is just the aesthetic which is like a green screen and actually they really wanted that brand consistency and what people are seeing behind them and if they are doing a pitch or a big presentation which requires a few of them remotely then where can they go to have a consistent space that three of them or four of them can all interact with the screen separately but at the same time have some consistency in the style so it's one we're trying to crack on our projects i'm actually really excited about it as a progression from just a zoom pod to maybe it could be more curated maybe bit more stylized and multifunctional as well so your pitch pods is a space that I want to look into what space are we going to all be using or starting to put into offices that we don't really have at the moment I think we're going to focus more on like amenities looking at like maybe yoga studios podcast rooms places that can be used like multi-use I think we're starting to see people ask for them more oh cool so 2026 bring on yoga studios yeah we'll be doing yoga and podcasts well i love that thank you sir no thank you well there we have what we think will be the busiest spaces in the office in this year 2026 so let's look forward to it hey but they always say that the food is where the people are so all these kitchen islands these collaboration spaces there better be food there because that's where people go yeah aside from that like I'm really I love that point about the amenities the podcast rooms the yoga studios focus on wellness what a great wrap up what's some great direction there for anyone looking at an office where to refocus where we think that people are gonna be and that's it from space by stansons today do follow and subscribe to the show notes on stansons.co.uk forward slash space and for now have a great one