The "chips" are over: office poufs and hammocks are becoming a thing of the past
Over the past five years, furniture has become one of the most expensive items of expenditure in office furnishing: prices have increased by 50-70%, market participants told Izvestia. Therefore, many organizations have begun to abandon optional elements — game rooms, sleep capsules, ping-pong tables. Less attention is paid to the corporate decor. About whether employees need lounge areas and what offices will become in the future, see the Izvestia article.
Why are they abandoning play areas?
Companies are reviewing their approach to office design and returning to more functional solutions, said Olga Volodina, co-founder and CEO of Manufaqtury. When choosing furniture, they now primarily look at its practicality, durability and convenience.
Furniture of the same level and configuration as five years ago will cost 50-70% more today. The cost may be even higher for custom-made cabinet products and complex structures.
"Even large corporations that used to equip their headquarters with hammocks, sleeping holes, and ping—pong tables have become more pragmatic about budgets,— Olga Volodina emphasized. — More and less expensive and spectacular items appear in offices, which are bought more for the sake of impression. The approach to executive offices is also changing: they are becoming not a personal space, but a full-fledged work area for the team.
Now the basic office furniture costs about 11.6 thousand rubles per 1 sq. m. m without VAT. This amount does not include items that are calculated separately, such as multimedia systems, bathroom equipment, and some kitchen elements. For offices with medium and high finishing categories, the cost is higher by about 30% and 50%, respectively.
The trend was also confirmed by Anastasia Krylova, Director of Product Management at Sum of Elements Group of Companies. In difficult economic conditions, developers, investors and owners have become much more aware of the valuation of assets.
— They carefully analyze what additional value they will get from certain "chips" of the project, — she said. — Today, no one is willing to pay just for a beautiful picture. Investors agree to invest money only in those solutions that directly affect their business and the operational efficiency of the facility.
The pragmatization of office spaces is associated not so much with an attempt to reduce costs for individual elements, but rather with increasing demands on their practical value, says Alexey Pogonin, Product Director at Koldi. The cost of construction is increasing.
"However, the characteristics that directly affect the quality of daily work and comfort cannot be compromised," the expert emphasized. — A modern office should be adaptive, designed for a variety of use cases.
At the same time, recreation areas remain important for employees. 50% of respondents believe that the office should have areas where you can relax and reboot.
Developers strive to make the most efficient use of office spaces, Forma agreed. This is reflected in current design trends: architecture is becoming more flexible, open and functional, and individual elements of the interior and furniture can solve several tasks at once — create a comfortable environment, set interaction scenarios and form a visual image of the project.
What else is the trend related to?
The fashion for hammocks, ping-pong, mini golf and other "chips" is really gradually disappearing, said Tatiana Grikhno, head of office real estate at A101 Group of Companies. There is a hypothesis that the generation of employees for whom such spaces were once created has simply grown up.: Today, it is more important for them to be able to concentrate, quickly get together with colleagues and solve a work problem.
— After active remote work, the value of the office has also changed, — she added. — People come there primarily for live interaction with the team or, conversely, to work quietly without home distractions. Therefore, meeting rooms, quiet work areas, and spaces that can be reserved for individual or team tasks are in demand.
According to Olga Volodina, the office is becoming more honest towards business. If a company really needs to attract young professionals, strengthen its HR brand, or keep people in the office longer, then additional spaces - recreation areas, game elements, and informal meeting rooms — may be justified.
"But such solutions should work for a specific purpose," the expert noted. — If the recreation area is not used or does not affect the team's work scenarios, it turns into an expensive decorative element. At the same time, aggressive branding is also disappearing. Previously, many companies tried to literally "fill" the office with corporate colors: logos on the walls, bright meeting rooms, repetition of branded elements in almost every room. Now the approach has become more subtle — the brand is still present in the interior, but it integrates more accurately - through navigation, individual details, color accents, graphics. The office is no longer an advertising banner and is becoming a more relaxed, high-quality environment.
Do employees need "chips"?
From a psychological point of view, hammocks, play areas or table tennis tables by themselves do not make the office more attractive and, moreover, do not guarantee higher productivity, said Maria Todorova, a specialist at the Road of Opportunity Mental Health Center.
— For an employee, it is much more important to have a basic sense of security, predictability and the ability to organize the workflow properly, — the specialist believes. — If a person experiences constant stress, is overloaded with tasks, or does not feel comfortable in a team, having a recreation area in the office will not solve this problem.
Additional spaces can be useful if they correspond to people's real needs, the psychologist added. A small, quiet area where you can retire, chat quietly with a colleague or take a short break is sometimes more valuable than an expensive game object installed solely for the sake of appearance.
— It is important for employees to independently regulate the number of contacts with others, — said Maria Todorova. — One person recovers through communication, the other through solitude. Therefore, a modern office should provide for different scenarios: spaces for collaboration, negotiations, informal communication, and places where you can briefly reduce the number of incentives. This is especially important in conditions of high information load.
At the same time, you can save money on furniture, but you need to do it wisely, Olga Volodina believes. According to her, it is not necessary to reduce the quality of the main workplaces — tables, chairs, storage systems and kitchen areas.
— You can save money without much damage on decor, custom-made furniture pieces and complex design solutions. But buying the cheapest analogues in the hope that they will look and serve no worse than high—quality products is a bad idea," she stressed.
The main task is not to buy the most expensive and not to find the cheapest, experts said. It is important to choose solutions that match the actual workload, the team's work scenario, and the economics of the project. This approach is becoming the main market trend today.
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