Co-working trend sees an increased demand for agile workspaces
“There is a big move away from traditional desk-type workspace environments,” Paragon Interface Director Claire D’Adorante comments. The increased adoption of social spaces for relaxation and focus rooms for privacy, for example, reflects a very real need for a variety of workspaces within a traditional corporate environment.
“Leading organisations are realising that employees require a balance between different kinds of spaces in the workspace environment in order for them to be as productive and as healthy as possible,” D’Adorante highlights.
The stress of modern life has resulted in employees demanding more of a work-versus-life balance from their employers and workspace environments. “People need to be able to find some measure of respite in their workspaces, by being allowed to work remotely and from home, as well as to be able to actually connect easily with their colleagues if need be,” D’Adorante explains.
The increased presence of multinationals in South Africa, for example, has resulted in ‘smart’ and technologically-connected workspaces where employee interaction with both global and remote offices is increasingly common.
“This trend is moving corporates away from larger workspaces, as new technologies have made it easier for people to be connected, and enables people to work in a more agile way. This, in turn, is driving a need for remote and flexible working policies to be put into place.
“However, what we are still seeing is a real human need to remain connected physically to the organisation via the workspace and ones colleagues,” D’Adorante elaborates. Recent workspace strategies undertaken by Paragon Interface for major clients have reinforced these findings.
Another trend is to connect interior and exterior spaces, and to essentially bring nature indoors. A prime example of this is The Link in Rosebank, designed by the Paragon Group, and where Paragon Interface was responsible for the fit-out for WeWork.
At the heart of this building is a multi-storey enclosed, north-facing atrium that captures the sunlight filtering down into a unique fluid underbelly of the ground-floor thoroughfare. This creates a conduit for a combination of green walls and indigenous planting brought to life in executive roof gardens, podium-level gardens, and parkade-wall gardens that result in a tranquil oasis within the bustling Rosebank precinct.
Ends
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About Paragon
Paragon, established in October 1997, is an internationally-active design business, based in Johannesburg. We deliver commercial architecture, masterplanning, interior design, and space planning to visionary clients in all property sectors, from retail to residential and education.
We are committed to global urban development. We are able and agile. Paragon is flexible and diverse in its approach to design. Each project is unique and not driven by style, but by lifestyle and a response to user needs. Elegant and efficient planning form the core of our designs. We understand the needs of our clients, and know how to generate ever new architectural forms in a competitive property market.
We are known for hands-on engagement with all opportunities present in the modern global building industry. The true measure of our skill is our ability to engage at all levels and with all players that make up the colourful world of construction and property development. Our buildings look forward. We embrace the future, because we will be a part of it – part of its problems and responsibilities, and part of its great freedoms and achievements.
Paragon Group Contact
Cindy Faux
Director
Phone: (011) 482 3781
Email: cindyf [at] paragon [dot] co [dot] za
Web: www.paragon.co.za
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