(Essen, 1 April 2020 [01.04.2020]). The Covid-19 pandemic is prompting companies to seek short-term, temporary solutions to spread mission-critical teams across different floors or properties. BROCKHOFF OFFICE helps companies quickly secure additional office space on a temporary basis. Companies seeking long-term premises continue to prefer mixed office layouts.

“A new type of office search has emerged in recent weeks. To spread mission-critical teams and employees across different locations, companies are using both home offices and temporary office space. This makes sense because businesses need to remain operational if employees test positive for coronavirus. We help by arranging available space without red tape. Landlords, with whom we remain in close contact, have also been extremely helpful. Co-working providers in particular have responded to the situation and can offer suitable solutions,” explains Tobias Altenbeck, member of the management team at Brockhoff & Partner and Head of OFFICE.

Often, only one third of a team remains in the usual offices, another third works from home, and the final third occupies offices rented at short notice. “In some cases, entire floors are requested so employees can work there with sufficient distance from one another,” Altenbeck adds. Traditional cellular offices are suitable for this, as are premises offered by flexible office providers.

No change in trend: mixed layouts remain in demand

Alongside temporary short-term enquiries, which are a current phenomenon, many companies remain active in the office market despite the coronavirus crisis. The Essen brokerage continues to receive enquiries for long-term space. So far, there is no sign of a shift back to cellular offices. “The huge open-plan office, which spread from the US in the early 2000s, is just as much an extreme as the traditional cellular layout. Over time, a mixed form has developed from both, and it is now the most sought-after option. These mixed layouts combine open-plan areas for better communication with individual offices for privacy and separate meeting rooms. That is still what companies are asking for. We expect this design approach, which continues to improve in subtle ways, to remain popular in the long term,” Altenbeck says, drawing on his experience.

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BROCKHOFF OFFICE is the office-letting division of Brockhoff & Partner Immobilien GmbH, founded in Essen in 1987. The company is the leading real estate firm in the Ruhr region and one of Germany’s leading owner-managed property companies.