A more entrepreneurial and less hierarchical world is changing office floor space, CBRE head of West End and Midtown office leasing Dan Hanmer said at Bisnow London's Big Office Bash, which tackled the future of office space — and how human needs and work-life blur would reshape or shrink workplaces.

“It’s really nice to talk about people for a change, after a hundred years of office buildings that were made like factories,” PLP Architecture principal Ron Bakker said.

He believes Europe is a little bit ahead of the rest of the world in discussing work/life issues and what people need.

“People are still physical in the digital age — they need to look and talk to each other,” Bakker said, insisting how that was incorporated into office floor space would make a crucial difference.

Lendlease Director of Offices Origination Kevin Chapman said, “I think in the future we will find large occupiers downsize their floor space, but turn up the volume on how it expresses their business culture.”

“It’s incredible that it has taken so long to start talking about people instead of just talking about the business,” he said.