b"The recently renovated interior to Number TEN Architectural Group's Winnipeg office, located in the Exchange District.THE FUTURE OF THE OFFICECulture, flexibility and wellness emerge as important aspects of work lifeBy James PetersIn a pandemic-fatigued world, thereadditional input from construction firmcaf for informal gatherings. Our seems to be unlimited impacts thePCL Constructors Inc. open, social hub is surrounded by virus has had on our lives, ranging inFortunately our firm is very forward- more focused head-down areas with consequence from the inconvenient tolooking, so we were already well-versedbreakout spaces nearby for smaller the fatal. Something plenty of peoplein some of the new technologies thatone-on-one meetings. can relate to is changing work life, withhave practically become standard issue,Gaining some insight into what was office shutdowns, design revisions andsuch as the use of Microsoft Teams ashappening south of the border, both potential new workplace solutions. a collaborative tool, says Genevievedesigners participated in the virtual Exactly how are builders and designersBergman, part of the Workplace StudioNeoConnect interchange conference at reacting to this new world? Haveteam at Number TEN. And our ownthe beginning of June. The designers pre-pandemic plans and layoutsrecently renovated interior space wasconsidered one of the presentations from been forced to undergo radical shiftsdesigned to be very open, which helpedTom Zurowski, a founding principal from in thinking? And what will happenenormously with planning, socialthe Eastlake Studio in Chicago, particularly to the future of the office in a post- distancing and collaborating. interesting. Zurowski outlined three main pandemic world?Ivy Bricker, another Workplace Studiooffice space themes that have emerged To better understand some of theteam member, adds, We definitelyover the course of the pandemic that he impacts of office construction andpushed the design boundaries bythinks deserve the most focus: culture, configurations due to COVID-19, Buildmoving our office into a more openflexibility and wellness. Manitoba interviewed designers fromenvironmentwith self-select spacesCULTURENumber TEN Architectural Group, withfor meetings, even a central workplaceIn a nutshell, the seminar reminded everyone that theres much thats positive about workplace culture that simply cant be achieved through working from home, Bricker says. Ease of collaboration, physical proximity and the natural energy in the workplace cant be taken for granted. Working is just more organic in the office. Casual conversations arent just frivolousits important to make time for those kinds of interactions. They may appear to be trivial, but theyre important human connections.Bergman adds, Video-conferencing technologies are great, but they miss the little things, like conversations you have before or after a meeting that often provide insights.30 BUILD MANITOBAwinnipegconstruction.ca"