Buro Workplace Design Trends Report 2026-2027
Designing High-Performing Workplaces
Buro explores the ideas shaping workplaces that
help people work well and live better.
About this report
We bring together insights from workplace research,
interviews with experts and Buro’s own expertise to
explore the trends shaping workplaces.
Inside this report
- Why flexibility has become an expectation.
- How workplaces can better support focus and cognitive performance.
- The growing importance of movement and ergonomic ecosystems.
- Why community continues to earn the commute.
- How does a human-centred AI workplace look?
- The design trends shaping commercial interiors, biophilic design, colour, texture and organic forms.
Go deeper into the ideas shaping the future workplace
The 2026-2027 Workplace Design Trends Report draws on interviews
with experts across workplace design, organisational psychology,
neuroscience, ergonomics and commercial interiors. If you’d like to
explore a topic in more detail, start with the interviews below.
Workplace design: What employees really want
Toni Dickson, Senior Design Consultant, Fuze Business Interiors
Q: What helps people feel they can do their best work?
“Acoustics, zoning and quiet spaces are the balance to open plan collaboration. They help workers feel like they can move throughout spaces with intent to match their work focus.”
One year after our Auckland office redesign, we asked our team what was working, what wasn’t.
Read the full interview
The human side of work: what helps people thrive?
Erika Clarry, Research and Development Lead, Umbrella and Geneva Wellbeing
Q: What makes people want to be together in the workplace?
“Work remains one of the primary places where adults form friendships and social relationships, and these relationships play an important role in our wellbeing.”
Explore connection, workplace wellbeing, psychosocial risk and why healthy, high-performing workplaces start with the design of work itself.
Read the full interview
The sensory workplace: how colour and texture are changing office design
Mary-Jane (MJ) Copeland, Commercial Manager and Consultant, Warwick Fabrics NZ
Q: Why are more workplaces embracing sensory design?
“As more of the working day moves onto screens, the physical workplace has an important role to play in supporting workplace wellbeing, offering texture, softness and sensory variety that digital environments can’t.”
Explore how colour and texture are influencing commercial interiors and providing relief from digital overload.
Read the full interview
The brain-friendly workplace
Dr Mark Williams, Neuroscientist, Author and Keynote Speaker
Q: What does a truly brain-friendly workplace look like?
“Most workplaces seem to assume that a person’s day has eight hours of available cognition. But it doesn’t.”
Explore what neuroscience tells us about attention, AI, workplace design and what helps people focus and perform at their best.
Read the full interview