In New York City, corporate offices find new ways to tempt their employees to bring them back into workplaces after the global pandemic.
The top strategies include additional features suggestive of the more nature-inspired regimes such as rooftop beekeeping classes, managing houseplants, setting up bird feeders and sitting outdoors with their laptops. Now, after the pandemic, companies try to lure employees back to the offices. Therefore, many have hit on the idea of making the office world feel more like the natural world. The aim is to provide office employees access to fresh air, sunlight and plants. The concept is also known as biophilia, which reveals that humans have an inborn connection with nature. In addition, designs that include nature are shown to promote health and wellness, The New York Times reported.
For instance, the Manhattan financial firm Nuveen now has two hives on its rooftop where employees who take the bait can learn to be apt to a hive, claim their share of honey, and perhaps even name the queen4. In addition, the company has spent $120 million revamping its office tower, dedicating the second floor to amenities, and refurbishing a 22nd-floor terrace.
“The pandemic amplified everything,” George Blume, a design director at the architecture firm Gensler, told the NYT. “Instead of biophilia being a fun little footnote, it became essential.”
In addition, various other offices have included gardens, terraces, bigger windows, and other nature-inspired features to make the offices a bit more tempting and worthwhile for employees.
“There’s a lot more focus on amenities and how to make an office better than working from your dining room table,” CookFox Architects founding partner Richard Cook told the NYT.
After the global pandemic has altered almost everything, there’s the very rational question of whether workers should have to return to a physical workplace at all. People have been doing their jobs remotely for a year and a half now; therefore, most people are hesitant to join offices again.
The offices with improved ventilation or can at least show that the air inside is clean have a chance at enticing people to return to the offices again. However, natural workspace is indeed a bonus.