The Flexible Office, a solution for a quick and safe return to business normality
Gran Via Business Center has led the way providing corporate workspaces where design and spaciousness allow to resume business activity with little or no changes in the spatial distribution prior to COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemichas lead to a global change of mindset in each one of the sectors where, up to now, people moved smoothly and adapted according to the needs of the moment. In the de-escalation phase of thealarm state and confinement caused by the virus, many questions arise now that back to normality is on the horizon. A very important one, that can affect every day’s routine, is how to move in the work environment. How will it be from now on?
One of the major impacts of the coronavirus are the adjustments that many work spaces have to do to meet legal and health minimum requirements in order to ensure the protection of the users. The closed (or narrow) office model that often defines the workplace is now history, and will give way to wide spaces where interpersonal contact and professional distance will be very much compatible.
In this regard, workspaces that already meet these requirements, such as the workspace based in the center of BarcelonaGran Via Business Center, are at great advantage: “Common areas and hallways represent 43% of the total area of the premises; therefore, being able to meet when respecting social distancing should not pose any problem”, points out the Center Manager Susana de la Rubia.
Averaging a minimum of 5 m2/person in their private offices, these dimensions allow the users to come back in a casual way, without changing the space allocation, and therefore enabling a quick adaptation returning to normality despite the current alarm state.
In fact, a feature such as the work area ventilation is also paramount when getting back to work. For this purpose, the workspace puts their own offices as an example: “every office relies on natural light and operating windows that enable extra ventilation, which is essential at present”, adds De la Rubia. With this, all the space requirements in order to resume activityare met by companies without investments or delays that undermine economic activity.
Thus, the potential to offer spaces with high health standards to companies will provide a relief that, in cases such as in Gran Via BC, will make unnecessary to reduce the density of the offices, which are originally wide, and will be a great opportunity for the flexible market which has been implemented during the more severe part of the confinement period.
