Since the start of the pandemic, CBRE’s Furniture Advisory team has communicated frequently with many furniture manufacturers to gauge what they were seeing in the market, how they were pivoting and what their own clients were requesting of them.
“After 12 weeks of discussions, our team wondered what long-term changes will and should be made to the office furniture of the future?”
“With that question driving us, we widened our net and spoke with 31 internal and external partners that span the lifecycle of a project. , , , While there were many common themes throughout our interviews, we found four mentioned most frequently: collaboration, flexibility, floor plan changes and work-from-home (WFH). Details on the implications to the future furniture needs from each of the four themes are explored in this report.”
“Based upon CBRE’s extensive research and industry experience, we believe we may see the next pivot in office furniture that supports the activity-based working while giving individuals more personal space, privacy, control and flexibility. Figuring out how to design products for safe collaboration is key for furniture manufacturers, as a number of our interviewees confirmed those are the types of spaces most missed and valued by individuals. This statement is supported by CBRE’s Global Occupier Sentiment Survey, where most respondents indicated workplace transformation is still underway with collaboration top of mind, but the exact design principles to support it may be uncertain. The desire for more collaborative space is critical for workplace efficiency and satisfying a more hybrid workforce.”