The office people turn up for, by design
Six things the research — and the experts — agree on.
01
Offer choice, not a row of desks.
Different modes of work need different settings: focus rooms, phone booths, a café, lounge, collab zones. According to Leesman, workplaces with a genuine range of settings score higher on almost everything, and 56% of people now work at unassigned desks anyway (Rhythms, 2025).
02
Make hospitality the heart.
Put the best coffee, hydration and food where people naturally gather, and let those "heat spots" carry the social life of the office. The top reasons people come in at all are collaboration (59%) and socialising (50%) (Leesman, The Hybrid Future, 2024).
03
Nail the invisible fundamentals first.
Climate, daylight, acoustics and comfort make or break a space before aesthetics ever do. Noise is consistently among the top complaints in open-plan offices (Leesman, Rhythms, 2025), so design in quiet zones, not just open ones.
04
Design serendipity back in.
The one thing home can't replicate is the unplanned encounter. Create paths, thresholds and shared points where people bump into each other. 49% of office workers say losing spontaneous interaction is the single biggest downside of hybrid (The Hybrid Future, 2024).
05
Bring nature in.
Daylight, greenery and natural materials measurably lift wellbeing, creativity and focus. Some of the cheapest upgrades win the biggest payoff (Scientific Reports / Nature, 2024).
06
Put water where people gather, and make it good.
A visible, high-quality water point promotes hydration and acts as a point of connection. WELL recommends a water point roughly every thirty metres (WELL v2, Feature W07).
More resources
Previous article
On making it theirs: How to involve your team
Both Henk Schouten of Hospitality Group and Paula Sobów of Powerplant start every project the same way: by asking. The thinking is simple: people use and value a space they helped shape. The work splits in two.
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In conversation with Larissa: the art of belonging
We speak with Larissa de Jel, work.club community manager, about what makes people feel at home in a workplace; and the importance of the small, everyday moments.
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