Office sanctuaries

Spotify wants to make its offices feel more like home. On February 12, 2021, the music streaming company introduced a work-from-anywhere policy, giving all employees the option to choose where they work. And for those who do opt to come into the office, Spotify wants to mimic the comforts of home. “I don’t agree that the desk is dead,” Sonya Simmonds, head of design and build at Spotify, said during a Dezeen panel at the end of February addressing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on workplace design. “But I think we have to look at creating spaces that mirror the kind of feeling that we’ve got from home.”

To achieve this, Simmonds—who is responsible for the look and feel of Spotify’s offices around the world—shared plans to incorporate more cozy nooks and softer acoustics. “In our homes as a whole we’ve got really good acoustics; we’ve got sofas and curtains,” she said. “And that’s what’s lacking in an office sometimes.”

Goop is also making its offices more home-like. The wellness company’s new Santa Monica headquarters, opened in September 2020, features curved lines, plush upholstery and soft colors. “The intent of the material palette was to evoke a sense of calming familiarity,” Sam Farhang, president and creative director of Rapt Studio, which designed the space, told Dezeen. “Natural, warm materials and soft tones create a welcoming environment, allowing the Goop team to feel at home.”

Office of Things is creating womb-like refuges within offices. As part of the design firm’s Immersive Space Series, it has installed five immersive meditation chambers in the Google and YouTube campuses in California, the most recent of which was unveiled in December 2020. The firm wanted to “create a space that sets you away in a different world, and to use that experience to create calm and refuge,” Lane Rick, the project lead who runs the New York chapter of Office of Things with Can Vu Bui, told the New York Times.