On 19 April 2017, Japanese researcher Yuki Kanamori from Kokuyo’s Tokyo-based Worksight Lab addressed an audience of industry partners at The Co. in a special seminar presentation. His line of enquiry was bold: Is physical office space still relevant? The answer, it emerged, was resoundingly positive.

Worksight is Kokuyo’s self-published magazine focused on the redesign of the working environment (the work space and work policy). Geared toward business people, it is the fruit of the research done by Kanamori and his team at the Worksight Lab. International field trips fuel their research, and the content of Kanamori’s presentation in Singapore was gathered from recent travels in North America.

He began by discussing the growing trend of remote working and the reduced reliance on the traditional office format, before presenting office case studies that showed how global organisations continue to invest in their own office spaces.

At Microsoft’s HQ, for example, the research team found a home-like place that makes use of the creativity of the staff. At the office of MEC (a mountain-equipment manufacturer), various functions are housed that aid staff in quick product development. At the TELUS Communications office, hospitality is important; an executive floor is devoted to it, and in another area a showroom was developed as a place to attract guests. And at technology company SAP, co-working take centre stage as a mechanism to establish contact with start-up companies and develop new business.

Photography by Wilson Pang.