Covid-19 totally disrupted the idea of the traditional office and accelerated the evolution of the office space. The pandemic has changed the working paradigm and office buildings need to do more for the people and instill confidence – is the conclusion of the speakers at CEDER 2021.
“Flexibility is one of the main trends of the office market this year. Not just in regards to negotiations or lease, but the flexibility the employees need while working. There are lots of new interesting opportunities, especially regarding the technologies, as well as the health and well being of the employees,” Andreea Cotiga, Senior Leasing Manager of Immofinanz said.
Gavin Bonner, Vice President Genesis Property, considers sustainability is one of the key issues that needs looking into. He also thinks the design and engineering of the buildings will change.
“As 90% of our time is spent in a building environment, we need to look at what buildings can do to protect people’s health. We need better air quality, better levels of filtration, bipolar ionization, we need to look at how UV can play a role here, but also at natural ventilation. Also, we need to update the cleaning technologies that are available. It’s so much more we can do, using the outdoor areas for working, touchless technology and so on.”
If the future buildings can be designed and built with a different perspective to accommodate a more flexible working space, what to do with the ones already on the market?
Didier Balcaen, CEO of Speedwell, believes the developers don’t have the luxury to change over night, both from the permitting and the construction point of view.
“Luckily, all our buildings are Bream Excellent certified and have the highest ventilation ratio. The core of our development has always been mixed use, bringing all functions together. Now we are talking about the ’15-minute city’, in order to avoid the commute. We brought all of that together in our project in Cluj, which was almost completed before the pandemic came,” Balcaen said.
