Social spaces: How today's offices are bringing people together
The Loft in South Yarra will include a podcast studio, lounges and event spaces.

Social spaces: How today's offices are bringing people together

Bringing people together through office spaces is an increasingly important focus for landlords – one that goes beyond meeting spaces and boardrooms.

Modern fit-outs feature areas where people can work together, such as amphitheatres and podcast studios, and areas where they can socialise, such as rooftop gardens and lounges.

At Melbourne’s The Loft in Chapel Street, South Yarra, tenants have access to meeting spaces, formal training and event spaces, lounges and a podcast studio.

It’s an example of how today’s offices are being designed for both functionality and connection, says Tashi Dorjee, JLL’s head of flex space, ANZ.

“The best way I can describe it is the space is almost a vehicle for human interaction,” he says. “Because if it’s not used properly or designed properly or activated – and activated is the key word here – then it’s just going to end up being a beautiful empty space that no one uses.

“You need to feel like you are part of an ecosystem now rather than ‘I’m just going to take my elevator and go to my floor and then leave my floor and not know [what’s] going on with the rest of the building’. It’s much more of a holistic approach.”

Office amphitheatres with seating for between 50 and 100 people are a popular choice for tenants. When they aren’t being used for team meetings, training sessions or presentations, they can still act as a retreat from the desk for individual workers or small teams.

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A new 10-floor office at 300 Lonsdale Street will feature edible gardens, retail areas and cafes.

Contemporary collaboration spaces are the result of thorough research by landlords eager to understand how office leasing needs have changed in the post-pandemic era.

Fit-outs are curated to zero in on the demands of a local demographic, a particular organisation or an industry.

“Landlords don’t just come in and throw in what they think works because it works in the building next door,” Dorjee explains. “There’s a lot of research going into this, including interviews with tenants in the building. Sometimes they even go to market and they interview tenants they want to have.

“They have a wish list of an industry or a tenant type and then they engage a partner or someone like us to go speak to them and be like, ‘Hey, what kind of activation would you like to see?’

“There are even data-driven third-party companies out there that track everything from social media hits, to what’s being searched, to how often people frequent areas within a building or an area that can help influence that content.”

Historically, office leases would be signed by major tenants in a five to 10-year set-and-forget arrangement. Now, landlords are trying to solve the tug-of-war problem employers are still in with staff enjoying hybrid working-from-home arrangements. These efforts are earning them lower vacancy rates and, for tenants, a more engaged workforce.

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Some modern office fit-outs include features like rooftop gardens. Photo: iStock

“People have come from an environment where they could go and sit out in their backyard or they could sit in their lounge room with the window open and get access to fresh air and natural daylight to go and stretch their legs,” says Ben Christie, national director, office leasing at Colliers.

“It’s effectively trying to create that beautiful outdoor environment that they get at home, but within their tenancy area.”

An upcoming 10-floor office at 300 Lonsdale Street above Melbourne Central shopping centre will feature a sky lobby that opens to a large, north-facing rooftop precinct.

The building, by GPT, will provide almost 20,000 square metres of space and is due for completion in late 2025 or early 2026. The rooftop will feature edible gardens, retail areas and cafes, and will be accessible to both tenants and the public.

Creating this outdoor hub not only gives people similar freedoms to those they had while working at home, but also health benefits, Christie says.

“It goes without saying that a big focus of it is also the health and wellbeing side of things,” he says. “If there’s one thing that’s come out of COVID, it’s probably been access to natural daylight and fresh air.

“So that’s the whole point of that rooftop precinct, which connects with the sky lobby – it’s giving people access to that outdoor space.

“It effectively allows them to disconnect from their workspace upstairs, come down to that sky lobby and rooftop precinct and use it as an extension of their tenancy area, get access to some fresh air and daylight throughout their working day.”

Landlords are trying to keep one step ahead of what tenants want. This year it’s about capitalising on what the working-from-home environment doesn’t have, and that’s people.