Bring Employees Back to the Office by Feeding Them

Workplace design is changing. Employees now come to the office for experiences, community, and well-being, not just a desk and a screen.

Ray Yuen, office managing director at Gensler, highlighted this shift at Fortune’s Brainstorm Design conference in Macau. Food, social spaces, and flexible environments are becoming the main features of the modern workplace.

The Rise of Food-Centric and Social Workplaces

Gensler’s research shows that employees value food-related spaces—like food halls, cafés, and lounges—more than traditional work areas. This marks a big change in how people want to experience the office.

Yuen explains that offices today focus on food and wellness, not just work. Amenities once called “support spaces” are now central to space planning, leasing, and building services design.

Food Halls and Cafés as the New Office Core

In the past, offices were planned around workstation density, with cafeterias and lounges as secondary spaces. Now, food halls and cafés often serve as the heart of the workplace.

This shift affects building engineering, from ventilation to acoustics and wayfinding. Integrated architectural and MEP strategies are now more important than ever.

Designing Experiences That Compete With Remote Work

With remote work common, the office must offer more than a place to use a laptop. It needs to provide an experience that home cannot match.

Yuen says organizations should create engaging and memorable environments. These spaces should shape culture and encourage people to return.

A Lo-Fi Vinyl Bar: Technology-Free by Design

One example is a Tokyo headquarters project where Gensler introduced a lo-fi vinyl listening bar. In this space:

This curated, analog experience supports mental health, focus, and creativity. Designers are now thinking beyond standard breakout rooms to create spaces that truly help people recharge.

Flexibility as a Core Design Principle

Most organizations have realized that old workplace layouts with fixed desks no longer work. Flexibility is now a key design goal.

Companies are moving from offices with 80% fixed furniture and 20% flexible space to a more balanced 50/50 mix. This change affects architecture and building systems.

Spaces That Transform in Hours, Not Months

Modern offices can quickly change from work environments to social venues. For example, an open collaboration zone can become a happy hour space at day’s end.

The result is an office that acts more like a multi-use civic building. It adapts to changing work patterns and needs.

Workplaces as Enjoyment Hubs, Not Just Work Hubs

Yuen points out that when remote work is possible, the office must offer more—it must be enjoyable. Human experience is now more important than pure efficiency.

Companies like Starbucks and Delta now encourage staff to create and share on-the-job social media content. This shows a growing comfort with the workplace as a public, experiential environment.

The Bigger Context: AI, Meetings, and Gen Z Economics

These workplace design trends sit alongside other structural changes in how and where we work. Concerns about AI bias in hiring are reshaping HR processes and influencing how organizations think about inclusion.

Changes in meeting culture at Instagram and other tech firms—often streamlining and digitizing collaboration—are altering the types of spaces companies need. Gen Z workers in the UK are also facing economic pressures that increase expectations for workplaces to offer more than just a paycheck.

For architects and engineers, the office of the future is not a static container for workstations. It is a dynamic ecosystem built around human needs like food, wellness, flexibility, and authentic experience.

 
Here is the source article for this story: If you want your employees back in the office, try feeding them, says Gensler executive