Considered office design is an essential element for maintaining workforce productivity, connectivity and staff retention. Queensland presents unique conditions that professional office designers can leverage to capitalise upon our unique lifestyle and locations.
We’re rounded up our top 5 favourite office design trends for 2025 below.
FLEXIBLE ZONES
Undergoing an office refurbishment or fit out is an investment so it makes sense to plan for future growth and the changing needs of your workforce.
Incorporating flexible zones into your office design is a clever way to give areas within your footprint multiple purposes.
Modular furniture can be easily moved to create flexible zones for meetings, work or break out zones.
Retractable walls or curtains can see meeting areas opened up for entertaining and events, while quiet areas can also be used for private meetings or as tele-hubs with the correct IT provisions.
Flexible spaces also enable your team to collaborate and interact easier presenting a cost-effective strategy for harnessing greater productivity.
CONNECTING PLACE AND PEOPLE
An emerging trend in the commercial office design space is creating a sense of place. By anchoring your employees to their location, you will give your workspace (and team) a sense of identity.
Connections can be drawn from the surrounding landscape, the cultural heritage of the property or the history of the building.
In a past project we celebrated the unique history of Brisbane’s bayside location. Meeting rooms were named and themed around islands and decals and artwork were installed showing map location markers for the islands.
LOCATION SPECIFIC AMENITIES
This is a fantastic trend for celebrating your location and surrounding amenities. City locations might like to incorporate bike racks, e-bike charging stations and showers for team members that cycle or walk to work.
Areas without public transport connections might look at designing in parking facilities for staff while locations in hotter climates might look at additional facilities such as breezeways, shaded areas and drinks or cooler stations for team members.
Location specific design elements consider the needs of your workforce and can lead to greater employee convenience, satisfaction and retention.
BIOPHILIC DESIGN
We’ve nominated biophilic design as a popular trend time and time again for very good reason.
A simple and visually effective way to promote wellness in your workplace, a biophilic design aims to increase connectivity with the natural environment by incorporating elements such as plants, natural timbers and natural sunlight to create a calming and welcoming space.
Plant life can also assist with air purification and improved acoustics within your spaces.
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
As we become more environmentally aware, incorporating sustainable elements in office design will also continue to trend. And with research showing that greener office environments could indeed foster better cognitive ability amongst employees, sustainable design appears a win/win for both employers and their staff.
Sustainable office design techniques to lean into include:
- Natural lighting solutions (including window spaces, skylights and the use of glass partitions)
- LED and other energy efficient lighting
- Concealed storage solutions (to minimise visual clutter)
- Recycled acoustic or sound proofing materials (to minimise noise pollution)
- Automated blind systems to control office temperature, sound and light
- Smart sensors to track air quality and humidity levels
- Showers and quality bathroom settings to encourage staff to cycle and walk to and from work
- Plants and live greenery to improve air quality, ambience and happiness in the workplace.
Modern Concepts are specialists in creating productive and inspiring office spaces. Chat with our Brisbane office design team here about your next project.