With the COVID-19 pandemic finally in the rear-view mirror, many aspects of daily life are finding their way back to normal. As many employers are making the shift back to in-office work days, the architects and designers at Corgan are prepared to support their clients in building spaces for collaboration and team building. That said, what are the architecture trends and issues to watch in 2025 and beyond?
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“I think the biggest thing we’ve seen, as far as trends, is the desire to attract people to the office,” says Jenn Consentino, principal and Interiors Studio leader at Corgan. “As a firm at Corgan, we are calling that, ‘How do we create the magnetic destination?’ We’re seeing that a lot of people are wanting to attract candidates and really provide office spaces that support all kinds of functions. But primarily, it’s being able to support getting work done and to collaborate and connect with their employees.”
The pandemic pushed employers to allow more flexibility in many aspects, but especially where their team members clock in from. Now, as people return to the office, Corgan is focused on the future in their designs and bringing in the needs and wants of their clients. Currently, Consentino says there is a heavy focus on gathering spaces that can be functional in any situation.
“Obviously, every client is different,” she says. “They all have different needs. But I think one of the key principles that we’ve been moving forward in a lot of our projects is the idea of flexibility. That’s really taking a step back and looking at how spaces can be used now, versus how they could be used in the future and easily converted to a different need. So some of those strategies include providing neighborhoods to different departments that have offices and huddle rooms and spaces so that the function can be switched out in the future. If you need more offices, or vice versa, you might need more huddle spaces, but you could easily swap out that furniture and you’re not having to do a lot of construction modifications to transition to the different functions. That’s really creating a lot of flexibility for our clients. The other thing that we’ve been doing is looking at flexibility in furniture systems. We tend to focus on corporate clients and we’ve obviously got work stations in those environments, so there’s a lot of thought that goes into creating those work stations so that they’re flexible in the future. What that looks like is using a kit of parts that could be reconfigured into multiple ways to support different work styles. Ultimately, the power for the work stations remains in the same spot, but you’re able to relay out work stations if you’ve got a different team in that environment or take it out and provide collaboration space. Overall, I really think flexibility is one of the top priorities that we’re seeing for our clients now in terms of their workspace.”
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
While flexibility and versatility are not new concepts to Corgan, Consentino says planning for the unexpected helps make her designs “future-proofed.” The pandemic taught everyone that things can change at the drop of a hat and Consentino keeps that in mind for her clients.
“There’s some mystery around what the office of the future looks like,” Consentino says. “Nobody’s a fortune teller. We don’t know what we don’t know, but we can plan for the unknown and we can plan for flexibility.”
Consentino says another key aspect to planning for the future in her designs is integrating sustainable options. Sustainability in architecture and design can look like an efficient water heater or it could be an optimized outdoor space. Either way, sustainability is a foundational aspect of the modern design process.
“Sustainability is definitely a priority for our clients and it’s become a lot more integrated into our design process,” she says. “I would say that it’s not at the forefront of the conversation because it’s something that we are doing more seamlessly and that includes looking at the type of materials that we use at Corgan. We have just recently updated our library to have no red list products. And that’s part of our sustainability initiative and commitment to our clients and to the environment. What that means is that we’re removing products that have red list items so that we don’t make those selections. We try to make sustainable choices as we work on our projects and our clients expect that of us. Today, I would say it’s more of an expectation.”
IMPACT OF AI
With the future in mind, it is impossible not to acknowledge AI’s steady growth into every sector of business. In architecture and design, there are many processes that can be made more efficient. On the other hand, there is a very human aspect to design that can’t be replicated by any computer. Human creativity is still out of AI’s reach, but that doesn’t mean it is not being used to make the next great office space.
“Obviously, AI has become more commonplace and it’s coming at us really, really fast, so that excites me” Consentino says. “I’ve seen changes in how we approach work already. I’ve seen changes in our clients and how they approach work and I’m excited to see how AI is going to shape the market and the industry and our clients’ world, too.”
That said, Consentino thinks, technology wise, AI is going to be a game-changer moving into the future.
“I also think, on the flip side, that it’s kind of like how sustainability has become an expectation,” she says. “I also see technology being an expectation for our clients and even throughout our whole industry: The need for technology to be integrated in a way that your workplace just works. You come in and you don’t have to fiddle with cords and you don’t have to worry if the conference room technology is going to work and you don’t have to worry about if you’re going to be able to virtually connect with somebody and see them and hear them and all of that. That’s an expectation now. I think that clients are realizing that and they’re updating their systems and utilizing design in those rooms to be more inclusive. It’s really not even centered around the hybrid conversation. It’s about inclusivity in design and how we can make sure that when we’re meeting with people outside our organizations, that they feel like they have a seat at the table, they feel included, you can hear them, you can see them. It’s really supporting that collaboration across the digital platform, too.”
At Corgan, Consentino attests to the company’s positive outlook on the future of AI in design. In Corgan’s work, they see AI as a tool to make their jobs a little bit easier, while still maintaining that human touch.
“As a firm, we are a firm of designers and architects,” Consentino says. “That’s what we’re passionate about and we don’t want to give that away to AI. So, the way that we use it is a tool to help us be more productive and efficient. The low hanging fruit is in meeting notes and things like that. We’ve got systems in place that help us to free up our time a little bit so that we can focus on things like mentorship and design and all the things that we’re passionate about. It’s almost like an assistant that’s helping to free up the things that we don’t want to do so that we can do the things that we do want to do.”
