Businesses look to renovate as Kiwis return to the office

Covid restrictions mean many people are still working remotely but as Kiwis start returning to the office, interior designers say businesses want more space for their staff.

Lizzi chatted to 1News about the surge in demand for office adjustments.

Watch the interview and read the article below.

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Lizzi Whaley from Spaceworks Interior Architecture says there’s been a surge in demand for office adjustments.

“We would have had over 50 per cent of our office clients considering changes and how they can incorporate more space.”

One of their clients, infrastructure firm Woods, started renovations several months ago.

“We’re certainly providing more break out rooms, more separate spaces for collaboration, more kitchens, so we’re gonna have three kitchens on the same floor,” says managing director Daniel Williams. “It just means that everyone can distribute all those congregation areas so we’re not gonna have them all in one place.”

While open plan offices have become popular over the last few decades, Carl Douglas, who leads the Spatial Design Department at AUT, says that’s starting to change.

“There’s been a move back towards spaces that allow people to focus a bit better, so allowing people kind of private work spaces.”

He says Covid is speeding up that shift.

“One of the lasting effects of this period where people have been working from home has been that a lot of people have kind of called into question why their work environment is the way that it is.”