Most of us live in a neighborhood. In a city or a suburb, unless we’re in a remote rural area, there is a good chance we live in a place surrounded by neighbors that make up our community. But what about working in neighborhoods? Neighborhoods at work are an emerging trend where areas of the floor plate are intentionally designed to optimize performance of certain teams, culture types or ways of working.  

Neighborhoods take into account things like flexibility, adjacencies, focus needs, collaboration, technologies and tools. Instead of an assigned desk, employees can be placed or may even have the option to choose which communities they work in. Depending on the needs of the team and the goals of organization, these spaces support the most productive way of working for that community or group. Neighborhoods enable and promote the culture type they are designed for and can boost collaboration.  

When designing for the activity-based environments that make up these neighborhoods, there are many things to consider. Here are a few of them…  

• What kind of work does a space need to support? From focused work to collaboration, learning to socialization, relaxation to restoration… each type of work benefits from a design, furnishings, and access to components intended to support and enhance it.  
• Where will employees need individual workspaces where they can do focused or solo work? Where will privacy (both visual and acoustical) be necessary? 
• Are there areas where small groups need to huddle for short periods of collaboration and teamwork? Are there a variety of spaces that will allow this type of work to happen without  disrupting others? 
• Will larger and more formal meeting spaces for internal or external use be necessary? 
• Where can team members find spaces where the can refresh and restore… spaces that promote wellbeing and resetting? 
• How will technology be integrated into these spaces to provide adequate power and data… to allow for flexibility and enable multiple spaces while also allowing for assigning and managing unassigned spaces and rooms.  
• How will density and space utilization be managed?   
• Will spaces, either assigned or unassigned, have areas to store personal belongings? Will the space balance the needs of a hybrid workplace?  
• What adjacencies will make the space most effective… in other words… how can the space be arranged to ensure that people, amenities, technologies and functions are placed and spaced to do their best work.  

The neighborhoods we live in benefit from careful planning, clean streets to navigate, social places like parks gather and private places like cul-de-saks to live in… and in many ways, the places we work are very similar. When designing your next space, consider this modern trend of intentional layout for activity-based working. More so than ever before, employees will be returning to the office with a purpose. Depending on your goals, neighborhood-based design could be right for you!