How We Did On Our Workplace Trend Predictions
In January, we took a swing at a few workplace predictions. Nothing mystical, just observations from years of project meetings and watching how people use space. Twelve months later, it seems only fair to check our work. Some things held up, some didn’t. And of course, there were a few curveballs.
Let’s take it from the top.
Prediction 1: The word “office” was headed for retirement
We said “office” felt like language that hadn’t stretched much since the era of beige cubes and buzzing fluorescents. “Workplace” seemed like it had a little more room in it, more accurate for how people work now.
Verdict: We weren’t wrong
Designers definitely widened the vocabulary this year. We heard more about hubs, neighborhoods, zones, and environments. No one struck “office” from the dictionary, but the language shifted enough that we’re counting it. And we quietly trimmed our own use of it, too. It felt like the industry was ready for a word with a little more room in it.
Prediction 2: Wellness and collaboration would be the new power couple
We said the era of performative wellness and collaboration was over and that meaningful, well-designed support for both would rise to the top. No more dusty game rooms. No more wellness walls that wilted before the ribbon-cutting. We expected real attention to comfort, lighting, acoustics, and ergonomics — the things that actually impact your day.
Verdict: Solid hit
This year, wellness didn’t show up as a trend; it was table stakes. Everything from lighting to seating got reexamined and improved. Designers took meeting fatigue seriously instead of treating it as a character flaw. The shift happened faster and more thoroughly than we predicted — that part was a pleasant surprise.
Prediction 3: Workplaces would support multiple generations and ways of thinking
We said 2025 would push workplaces to do a better job supporting the full mix of people who show up every day. Gen Z would nudge everyone toward personalization, and awareness around neurodiversity would expand space types. Basically, more choice in how to work, fewer assumptions about how people do their best work.
Verdict: Right — with a few blind spots
The rise of choice-based environments was unmistakable: focus rooms, sensory-tuning, captioning, height-adjustability everywhere, and materials selected as much for comfort as for durability.
Only miss here? We predicted a bit more intergenerational harmony. Turns out everyone is still arguing about where to take phone calls and how loud is ‘too loud’. Baby steps.
Prediction 4: Color would make a comeback
We declared it was time for color to re-enter the chat; not as accent walls but as intentional tools. We expected workplaces to embrace expressive palettes, richer materials, and branding strategies that use more than decals and logos. That spaces would feel more awake and connected to the people who work there.
Verdict: Bullseye
Grey and beige didn’t disappear (let’s be real) but color made a definite comeback. Designers leaned into palettes that set the vibe: calm tones for focused work, warm hues for gathering, expressive accents where energy matters. Brand expression evolved, too. Instead of plastering logos on every flat surface, teams expressed identity in quieter, more engaging ways.
We’ll call it good instincts that our own palette refresh showed up right on schedule.
Prediction 5: The Workplace would become a destination
We said that to ultimately succeed, workplaces needed to offer more than you could get from being at home. Weave a little hospitality thinking into the workday, as well as cues from local culture. Make people want to show up instead of calculate how to stay home. In short, if the workplace didn’t become a destination, it risked being an afterthought.
Verdict: Definitely
The “destination workplace” became more than a design trend. It became a survival strategy. Hospitality-inspired details, café-style seating, micro-meeting spaces, activated lobbies, rooftop hangouts, and outdoor work zones all grew dramatically this year.
Not every workplace nailed it. Some became destinations; some became places you walk through on the way to the destination. But the direction of travel was unmistakable.
Final Score: A Solid A-
Not because we “almost” got things right but because we made predictions bold enough to be wrong — and still hit more than we missed. We read the patterns, trusted our instincts, and weren’t afraid to plant a flag or two.
The real win?
We learned a lot. And we’re taking all of it into the next round of predictions.
Will 2026 surprise us? Absolutely.
Will we make new predictions anyway? Of course.
Will we be right? Ask us in twelve months.
Either way, we’ll be here — watching, learning, designing, and occasionally laughing at ourselves when the future decides to take a left turn.
