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How do occupiers reconfigure space when data shows people using offices very differently from how they were designed, and there is no blank-sheet brief or blank-sheet budget to start again?
Space Design and Real Behaviour, hosted by Bertie Van Wyk of MillerKnoll, examined how occupiers adapt existing space under those constraints, from agreeing strategy before design to the role of evidence, leases and AI.
Tribe Host: Bertie Van Wyk (MillerKnoll)
Co-Hosts: Rebekah Powley (Entain), Alisa Weber (Wolt), Simon Francis (LifeArc) and Louise Dixon Chapman (Ingenico)
Scribe: Suha Kamran
Strategy and Culture Before Design
Design never lands perfectly on day one, and it was suggested that getting about 80% right is a good outcome. New furniture on its own changes little: if people are not shown how a space is meant to be used, they carry on working the way they always have.
Many of the Tribe believed that good workplace design brings together HR, policy and culture, estates and facilities, and technology, and that it needs a workplace strategy agreed before the design starts. That strategy has to allow for people working differently, whether in the time of day they work best or in how scientists and office staff operate.
One of the Tribe members described the common thread as the need for someone who joins the dots between those functions. The role runs from spotting a questionable number before it shapes strategy to leading change without losing people and getting HR, IT and Finance to agree.
Evidence, Leadership and Flexibility
Leaders often have their own views on how many desks are needed or how many days people should be in the office, and these do not always match how the space is used. In one case, desks added in place of flexible furniture sat unused, which left an open question over who should own that decision. Many of the Tribe advised pushing back with evidence and agreeing at the start how success will be shown.
Flexibility is also limited by leases, which run for five, ten or twenty years when a space may need adjusting every two and a half years. Acquisitions add to the pressure, for example when a space planned for eight people has to fit sixteen.
AI and the Purpose of the Office
The Tribe largely agreed that it is too early to say how AI will change office design. Most organisations are still in the early stages of adopting it, there is no clear evidence of its impact yet, and it was observed that businesses are not yet paying the full cost of the tools. It is also unclear whether IT, HR or real estate should own the decision.
Early experience is mixed. AI taking over routine tasks has given some teams more time to meet in person and work on harder problems, while in creative work it has made offices louder and added a layer of checking before anything goes out.
The design response may not need to change much from what is already needed: focus space, breakout areas and flexibility. It was also suggested that adoption works best when groups use AI together, which points to a need for spaces that support that.
Experience, Choice and the Value Exchange
Many of the Tribe considered the question of mandate or magnet too simple. A better test is what people give up compared with what they get: whether they chose to go in, why they were asked to, what it costs them in time and money, and what they find when they arrive. If that balance is wrong, the effect works in reverse.
Locations where people came in more than required were often smaller ones, where people could reach leadership and felt part of what was going on.
Details matter too. Doors with no clear push or pull and hidden bins frustrated users, and complaints about a slow lift, which came with a £2 million quote, stopped once mirrors went in beside the doors. Marketing and behavioural economics were suggested as fields worth learning from.
Biggest Opportunity: Designing Experience as Well as Space
Many of the Tribe believed that treating the workplace as an experience as well as a set of spaces gives teams more options. Food, sports and mentoring are easier to test than a redesign, and changes can be piloted with one group, reviewed after three and six months, then offered to others.
A relationship-focused workplace, built around how people connect with the space and with each other, gives that work a purpose. The Tribe largely agreed that this matters more as AI lets people get more done on their own.
Biggest Challenge: Aligning Leadership, Policy and How People Actually Work
Leadership expectations, policy and the needs of employees often pull in different directions. Leaders may want everyone in for a set number of days, or more desks, while people differ in how and when they work.
A flexible policy leads to different behaviour in different locations, because the cost of getting to the office varies, and leases limit how quickly space can change. Design sometimes starts before strategy and culture have been settled, which leaves less scope to correct course.
Cost runs through all of it. Coming to the office costs individuals, and the business wants a return on both its property and its AI spending.
OCCUPEERS took place on 13 October 2026 at Fulham Pier, London.
Find out more about the event at space-plus.org/occupeers
