Making the most of real estate is changing how spaces are used. Reece Webb explores the drive towards flexible, multipurpose rooms in corporate spaces.
The corporate workplace has evolved. Today, we live in flexible times where an employee’s options to work have never been more varied. Governments in Europe, such as the UK, now offer rights for employees to request flexible working arrangements from day one, requiring employers to think differently about the look, feel and functionality of the workspace. It’s no longer about offering just the facilities and the equipment to do a specific job, but to offer a reason for employees to come into the office and collaborate with partners.
Combine this with the ever-increasing cost of corporate real estate, employers need to think very carefully about how they use the limited space that they have. This considered approach extends to the AV systems that enable on-site working in corporate environments and offer a reason to be in the office.
Jiri Platek, marketing manager, AV Media Systems, explains: “Not long ago, work was inextricably linked to physical presence in an office. With fixed hours, a specific workstation, and a routine of arriving and leaving. This model long served as an unquestioned standard. Today, however, it is evolving. Flexibility is no longer just a perk, but a new way of thinking about the very essence of work: its meaning, rhythm, and the space in which it takes place.
“The topic of returning to the office sparks lively discussions. Companies are looking for ways to motivate their teams, sometimes with a friendly invitation, other times through a direct approach. Yet the greater the pressure, the stronger the resistance. People today do not respond to commands like ‘you must.’ They expect respect, meaningfulness, and the freedom to choose. They want to be invited, not forced. A functional work environment does not emerge from orders, but from its own appeal. It’s a place people return to not out of obligation, but out of an inner need to focus, collaborate, create, share, and recharge. Such a space does more than support performance. It becomes a cultural and emotional frame for daily experiences.”
Ian Howard, director of major projects, TwistedPair, concurs: “There is a greater demand for more flexibility. Users are trying to get the most out of their ROI and the AV technology. AV used to be a ‘nice to have’ option years ago, but now it is a necessity. The value of AV is a high cost which has to be paid out, and users want to be able to utilise that in as many spaces as possible to get the most out of their office environments.
“Expectations around technology have changed, too. Users visualise the quality of their technology at home, and they expect that everywhere throughout a corporate environment. Gone are the days of wheeling in a small TV that can’t be seen by everybody or a projection system which is heavily impacted by ambient light, they are expecting a full system that they can use day in, day out.”
Multipurpose mindfulness
Corporate spaces today are attempting to make the most of their workspaces and nowhere is this drive more pronounced than in cafeteria spaces that double as breakout environments and town hall meeting spaces, maximising the use case of larger spaces to achieve results that not only increase the ROI of a space, but offer a unique opportunity for employees to interact.
Howard explains: “Real estate teams see technology as a key element to building company culture, and the town hall setup has become more and more prevalent since the pandemic. Pre-covid, our US clients would always adopt this approach quite early on in a project, but the pandemic has led to our global customers rolling this out.
The key driver is the return on investment on the AV technology. It’s about inclusivity, where clients previously would typically hold an in-person all-hands meeting, it now is half remote and half in the office, so they must invest in the technology for employees to feel included.”
Designing for these spaces requires a unique approach to room design that not only compromises on the aesthetics and acoustics of a space but also maximises the opportunities that a space can offer when used in varying capacities.
Platek continues: “A workplace cannot be seen merely as furniture and walls. It is a living organism, an ecosystem that fosters innovation, team energy, and deep concentration. It is not a backdrop, and it is not a machine. It is a space that shapes how we think, feel, and act.
“A work environment should reflect the organisation’s values, resonate with its culture, and
naturally support various working styles and interpersonal relationships. There is no one ‘right’ arrangement just as there is no universal ideal worker. What inspires one person may limit another. That’s why the environment must be flexible, sensitive, and open to diversity.”
Howard continues: “With office space at a high premium, some clients are downsizing with remote working, collaborative solutions allow customers to maximise the floorplans that they’ve got. Having a cafeteria with an AV system can drive the maximum use out of this space. When it comes to designing a space like this, you have to set expectations as early as possible to what is feasible within the space. We need to establish the rough functionality that the client wants early on, what would be a ‘nice to have’ feature, and what the budget is so we can meet expectations early on.
“It’s not just around the technology where the blockers are. Two of the key issues we’ve noticed are acoustics in cafeterias, which of course are not acoustically designed to host big videoconferencing setups as the acoustics just aren’t up to standard. Screen placement is another issue. If you have glass on three or four walls, you are very limited on where you can put the technology that you need to support system usage.
Part of the furniture
While traditional AV technology is key to making a flexible space work, architecture and furniture must blend together to make these spaces work. It is not enough simply to provide technological flexibility, but to offer spaces that maximise real estate through modular furniture and spacious environments to encourage close collaboration.
Platek says: “Functionality sees space as a tool. It evaluates how many desks fit, how easily technology can be connected, and how efficiently space can be used. This is the basic skeleton. But without additional layers, it is not enough.
“Aesthetics is the visual language of space. It creates the first impression, the tone, the rhythm. It can be minimalist, elegant, expressive, or playful. But if it stays only on the surface, it becomes mere decoration.”
For Howard, modular furniture stands out as an emerging area of flexible AV design that will grow in importance: “We’re focused more on the traditional AV tech, but we have noticed that modular furniture is becoming a more important requirement for clients. There is a lot more coordination to do on that side which would traditionally be in a furniture vendor’s package, but this is now slowly becoming a bigger opportunity in an AV package. There are some great solutions out there, but not as many options as you would find with traditional office furniture right now.
“When we’re looking at viewing angles for cameras, we always recommend tapered tables in larger rooms so that it’s more inclusive and that you don’t have people’s heads being cut off from somebody standing in front of them. We can have a bit more enforcement around the shape of the table to give users the best setup for their space, when previously everything came from furniture vendors, they wouldn’t be too concerned about the shape of the table. The client may want what they think looks best, not from a functionality perspective.”
The death of fixed functionality?
While flexible spaces are continuing to become prominent in corporate spaces worldwide, the limitations around acoustics and technology placement in these spaces mean that announcements of the death of fixed functionality are certainly premature.
Howard says: “Flexible spaces are here to stay, but fixed functionality is not dead in the water. It will be interesting to see, as return-to-office plans unfold, how many people are coming in and how clients choose to invest in their existing tech. If they are not getting people back in five days a week, they will need to keep these flexible spaces and possibly increase the amount they have. The next few years will see this pan out, but either way, these flexible spaces are here to stay and there is also the need for fixed, dedicated spaces.”
For Platek, the future of corporate workspaces is deeply tied to flexible functionality intertwining with aesthetics and conscious design, creating an environment that is futureproofed through intelligent design and artificial intelligence: “Design emerges when functionality, aesthetics, and technology connect with the human experience. Only then does space cease to be a mere backdrop and becomes the stage on which our real story unfolds.
“Let us imagine a space that listens. An office that senses light, sounds, mood, and daily rhythm and automatically adapts through artificial intelligence. Just like a search engine anticipates what we want to type, an intelligent environment recognises what we need for work, comfort, and regeneration. A meeting room can become a calm zone or a studio of ideas, shaped by the moment rather than a preset template.