The General Services Administration (GSA) is seeking to learn and analyze the potential impact of a hybrid-enabled office.
The U.S. federal agency has taken up 25,000 square feet in Washington D.C. to serve as its Workplace Innovation Lab, where it will evaluate and study how state-of-the-art offices can bring workers back into the office.
The Workplace Innovation Lab will look into various factors of an office, and how each one impacts its occupants. For instance, the GSA will explore just how much office space federal agencies require, an employees’ ideal furniture and design elements and the technology that can help them succeed in their workday.
“The innovation lab is one of many ways we can create the magnet, not the mandate, for people to return to the office and re-experience the benefits of shared culture, idea exchange, and camaraderie,” said Nina Albert, Public Buildings Service Commissioner at the GSA.
The innovation lab boasts agile furniture that can easily transform the office into a multi-person huddle space or a private area for focused, heads-down work.
Although the GSA has allowed each federal agency to choose and apply their own work arrangements, the innovation lab could provide critical insight into how to improve engagement and collaboration during an era when it is suffering.
If the Workplace Innovation Lab is successful, the GSA could look to open another office next year.
