One of the biggest changes the Coronavirus has made to the way we interact is that we are now interacting with each other not in the office, but in each other's homes. Their living rooms, kitchens, verandahs and home offices. The thing that strikes me about this is how personal those spaces are compared to our offices, and how comfortable people appear in their own spaces. Seeing this really brings home how much physical space matters in our work lives, and how much the design of our offices really lets us down.

Offices these days pretty much come in two flavours - the sterile cubicle farm and the modern funky. Your cube farm is the classic office layout, all beige or pastel panelling. An off white plywood desk in a tiny individual cubicle or (horror of horrors) a communal "pod". The modern funky office on the other hand is all bright colours, faux industrial chic furniture, exposed plywood, lots of communal spaces and plenty of green. This sort of office space is designed to scream out "Look at us…look how modern and funky we are!" Both of these office layouts are bad and, despite their very different appearances, for essentially the same reason.

Read More