Meeting my sister, Serena, for brunch is always a full-on experience. For starters, she’s typically on route between meetings with various stakeholders and breathlessly pumped about some new project she’s cooking up. For another thing, I can barely get a word in edgewise against her tidal waves of corporate buzzwords.
On the plus side, she has flawless taste in dining spots, and brunch is generally on her, so I get to kick back with my activated charcoal smoothie bowl and coconut cold drip while her references to ‘engaged workplace culture’, ‘breakout spaces’ and ‘disruptive design’ wash over me.
Today, for example, she was on about the new office design trends Melbourne will (apparently) be seeing in 2019. I wasn’t deeply invested in the conversation or giving it my full attention, but even so, I was able to glean that she wasn’t talking about purely stylistic things like particular light fittings or finishing materials. It was more to do with the overall layout of a space and how this can influence the behaviour of the people who use it.
What she was saying seemed kind of like common sense to me… I suppose you could also frame it as just making sense on an intuitive level. Granted, I hadn’t really given it much thought before, although when she said it it seemed obvious. I assume there are companies that specialise in this kind of this kind of design thinking here in Melbourne. Office fitout services, too, must be a thing if said design is to be realised in an actual commercial space.
My mind started to wander when Serena started up about how her Sydney office is set to undergo yet another spatial makeover. I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s the third time in as many years, unless it’s all part of the same project. It does seem like Serena’s standard style to be perpetually in the midst of an office redevelopment project.