MTA Blog

What are the hottest trends in office design and furniture? Here are five trends we’re seeing in today’s offices and workspaces.

1). Lower panels in office cubicles offer more natural light and provide workers with a feeling of connecting to nature. Herman Miller’s Canvas Office Landscape is a good choice for several office environments—private offices, benching or cubicles.

2). In today’s challenging economic climate, businesses are choosing glass on the front walls of private offices to communicate company inclusiveness and transparency.

3). With an increase in a mobile workforce and workers spending more time away from the office, “benching” systems provide a space for them to work during the times they are in the office. In addition, benching systems, with their open spaces offer a better usage of natural lighting and may help workers perform better. The Harvard Business Review recently reported that workplaces that enabled a line-of-sight connection between workers yielded more than a 15 percent improvement in workplace productivity.

4). Workplace ergonomics was talked about often in the 1990s and now it is being rediscovered as our high tech age translates to people sitting for a living. How to position the computer, what type of chair to purchase, the height of the monitor and keyboard all need to be considered in order to prevent ergonomic problems in the shoulder, elbow, wrist and head. 

5). The space one eats lunch in during the workday is just as important as the office setting. The contemporary lunchroom is being designed with a more lounge-area feeling, similar to what’s found in today’s coffee shops. Seating choices are varied. There tend to be sofas along with bar-height tables combined with those of traditional height and size. Popular colors in both lunchrooms and office spaces are leaning towards the earth-based greens, browns and yellow to create a sense of outdoors and nature.