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Getting back to work is about realising that a dramatic shift in office life, as we know is being unveiled.

For years, office design has crammed more and more employees into smaller spaces, while creating an open collaborative atmosphere. Now with Covid-19, aspects like “benching”  and co-working are the opposite of what employees want to face as they return to work.

As companies plan how to bring their workforce together again in the office, architects are going to become extremely busy thinking about how to design new offices or ‘retro-fit’ existing ones, as well as HVAC engineers to reconfigure existing layouts as well as adapting to the new measures being brought in.

A lot of the standards developed over the years to make offices eco-friendly actually run counter to making an office safe from a public health perspective. Due to a lack of regulations it will be up to each individual company to do develop its own policies and bring in experts to advise who may offer quite differing advice.

How to start “de-densifying” the office

Designers say changes may include:

Wider Corridors With One-Way Footfall

Think road markings, but for offices. The floors and walls of our offices are likely to be covered in visual instructions.

Air Filtration & Circulation

• Touchless elevator controls
• Antimicrobial materials in new construction
• Videocconferencing even within the office to avoid the conference room
• Dividing the workplace in half with alternating attendance days would come alternating desks.

The new headquarters for the Bee’ah waste management company in Sharjah, UAE may be a glimpse of the future. (https://www.zaha-hadid.com) is packed with  ‘contactless pathways’, whereby employees rarely need to touch the building with their hands.

By installing beacons into its office to track employees’ movements via their mobile phones, employees will be sent alerts when six-feet rules are breached.

Companies expecting to save money initially by requiring less space may not be able to do in the short term because of reduced densities, but commercial rents will fall due to economic conditions, and once office design changes take place with more capsulation /individualised work stations being installed , densities can increase again.

Collateral changes that will take place will be clean desk policies to allow more efficient cleaning of surfaces, laptops instead of desktops that can be taken away.

Antimicrobial materials and ultraviolet lights for cleaning may be the future, but will not yet be in place as most people go back to school and work.

Toyota said on its earnings call that it will install plexiglass barriers between bathroom sinks. Many office bathrooms already have touch-less sinks and soap dispensers, but what about the toilet stall door? These should at a minimum open outwards to avoid touching handles in the cubicles and maybe thinking through even incorporating voice activation to open doors?

All companies will have to put a team member in charge of making sure employees follow the new rules about distancing.

Conserving Energy & Improving Air Quality

After the crisis, some workers will likely continue working from home on a regular basis. To accommodate a more flexible workforce, companies have more reason to demand adaptive energy systems.

It will become necessary to install adaptive systems that can respond more effectively to changes in occupancy levels.

A summary of practical measures for building services operation:

1. Secure ventilation of spaces with outdoor air

2. Switch ventilation to nominal speed at least 2 hours before the building usage time and switch
   to lower speed 2 hours after the building usage time

3. At nights and weekends, do not switch ventilation off, but keep systems running at lower speed

4. Ensure regular airing with windows (even in mechanically ventilated buildings)

5. Keep toilet ventilation 24/7 in operation

6. Avoid open windows in toilets to assure the right direction of ventilation

7. Instruct building occupants to flush toilets with closed lid

8. Switch air-handling units with recirculation to 100% outdoor air. This perhaps the most controversial recommendation, but actually what caused the spread of Corona on the Cruise Ships was circulation of the airborne particles in the air conditioning systems. (Aircraft, which have cut fresh air intakes to negligible amounts on the basis of saving on fuel costs, will have to switch to 100 %, but with fuel prices low for the foreseeable future this should not be an issue.)

9. It is recommended to avoid recirculation of air during COVID-19 episodes by closing the recirculation dampers (via the Building Management System or manually). Sometimes air handling units and recirculation sections are equipped with return air filters, but most of these filters, even HEPA filters may not filter out virus size particles effectively. Ultraviolet light can be used to disinfect indoor spaces and could be installed to destroy viruses, fresh air intake,

10. Inspect heat recovery equipment to be sure that leakages are under control

11. Switch fan coils either off or operate so that fans are continuously on

12. Do not change heating, cooling and possible humidification set points

13. Plan duct cleaning for this period

14. Replace central outdoor air and extract air filters as usually, according to maintenance schedule

15. More frequent filter replacement including HEPA filters and maintenance works should be performed.

16. Plasma Ionic Air Purifiers

      This is an ideal product for anyone who needs to  

      maintain a silent, clean and fresh  environment for a

      low cost.

      Plasma Ionic Air Purifiers operate in five    

      stages ,which effectively eliminate bacteria, viruses,

      allergens and dust.

• First Stage - Plasma Ionizing Technology
• Second Stage - Electrostatic Dust Collection
• Third Stage - Photcatalytic Nano Filter
• Forth Stage - Anti-Bacterial Material and Filter
• Fifth Stage - UV (ultra violet) Lamp

Thus there are a lot of options to consider. People’s expectation about their buildings will change.

The next time we go back to our offices, we’ll think about it differently.