So far, conference room designs have focused primarily on the design and integration of participants. After the outbreak of the pandemic, their future was put into question. What will change? What to pay attention to when designing this type of space?

Despite the need to limit meetings due to the coronavirus outbreak, the need for meetings, dialogue, and mutual interaction has not disappeared. We quickly got used to communicating using online tools, but many people also expressed the need for direct contact. Therefore, conference rooms will still be needed, but they will certainly look a bit different than before. Their most important feature will be multifunctionality and the ability to quickly adapt to current needs: for example, the division of the room into several smaller parts.

 Conference rooms will be needed not only for traditional conferences, which are currently impossible to organize but also for online conferences. Not all employees have the right conditions to attend to them from home. Therefore, places, where appropriate equipment will be available, will certainly be useful for both organizers and participants of online events. Therefore, it will be important to have the right acoustics, audio and video equipment, and stations to which you can connect your own devices. Perhaps some meetings will be organized in small groups in separate rooms, and meetings in larger groups will be transferred to the big screen.

Despite the pandemic, the design still remains relevant. Investors of newly constructed facilities place great emphasis on designing an element that will distinguish their space on the market and be consistent with the DNA of a given brand. An example is the recently opened Crowne Plaza, in which the conference space refers to the topography of Warsaw. The interiors were designed by the Tremend studio.

According to the architect Magdalena Federowicz-Boule, the president of the board of the Tremend studio, which is working on the designs of conference zones during the pandemic, the focus must be on multifunctionality and mobility.

"We are still looking for the best design solutions, we are all just learning how to function in the new reality. I hope that we will develop standards that will allow us to still enjoy meetings, the direct exchange of thoughts and experiences. It is a primal human need, which in the long run cannot be fully satisfied online. Mixed-use and the ease of re-arranging space is in my opinion a good direction for everyone who works on new solutions. However, the most important tip I always follow in my work are the words of designer Thierry Brunfaut: Don't design for designers, design for people," the expert explained.

(WBJ)