The New Normal project’s aim is to investigate which could be the new workplace paradigm after the Covid-19 spread worldwide.
The conception of office, and workplace in general, has changed due to the pandemic and the establishment of the new remote working solutions. In this context, it becomes interesting and necessary to understand how the situation will stabilize even after the end of the pandemic. The shift towards a “New Normal” should not be drastic and cannot ignore the opinions, preferences and needs of people, that are the real protagonists of daily work. For this reason, the team developed a human-oriented framework to understand the new working paradigm and to guide the redesign of the workplaces, so that each organization can choose the solution that fits the best its specific case.
The framework is composed of four elements. A survey, to assess the workplace’s perceived quality and satisfaction from people’s point of view, to catch the changing workers’ needs and to consequently adapt the configuration of offices. A quality index, to understand the employees’ satisfaction with the as-is workplace situation, it describes the sustainability of the office in terms of comfort and quality of spaces. An Organizational Network Analysis section, to obtain metrics that may give additional useful information on the intensity and importance of some linkages existing within the office under analysis. Three possible scenarios, based on the analysis of the recent architectural trends, together with considerations of the current pandemic situation and the requirements of the offices in the next future, which differ quantitatively and qualitatively.
In the first stage, the team focused on research on the core topics of the project, documenting itself in the internet and participating to weekly events organized by Cariplo Factory, where it was possible to confront with representatives of many important companies and refine the concept based on their feedbacks as well. The definitive framework was developed together with The Adecco Group, that through their expertise, helped the team in the survey creation and design and to maintain contacts with some potential hosts of the project pilot. Finally, the concept has been tested in Astrazeneca’s offices; the test gave satisfactory feedbacks on the framework’s functioning.
Principal Academic Tutor:
Enrico Macii (Politecnico di Torino)
Academic Tutors:
Michele Bonino, Valeria Federighi, Francesco Carota, Camilla Forina, DAD, Emilio Faroldi DABC, Edoardo Patti, DAUIN, PoliTo; Donatella Sciuto, DEIB, PoliMi
External Tutor:
Carlo Ratti, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT