{"id":3000085234,"date":"2026-09-30T12:19:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T16:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?p=3000085234"},"modified":"2026-09-30T12:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T16:19:18","slug":"what-high-utilization-workspaces-have-in-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/office-design-space\/what-high-utilization-workspaces-have-in-common","title":{"rendered":"What High-Utilization Workspaces Have in Common"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Imagine two offices in the downtown area of a big city. Both are conveniently located with several nearby transportation options. They have similar layouts and comparable amenities. The companies they house have similar headcount, operate in the same industry, and follow the same hybrid policy. One office runs at 65% utilization while the other hovers around 35%. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer is simple: the space itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBRE’s 2026 Global Workplace & Occupancy Insights<\/a> put the global average building utilization rate at 53%, up sharply from 38% in 2024 and 35% in 2023. While that’s real progress, it still means most organizations are paying for more space than their people use in a typical day, especially outside peak hours and peak days.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the companies above that line doing differently? The research points to a consistent pattern.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People come in for each other, not for a desk<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to CBRE’s data<\/a>, 68% of employees cite collaborating with colleagues as their primary reason for coming in. Yet most office floor plans were drawn before this became the dominant use case. In a different report, CBRE<\/a> shows that in 2026, individual workspace currently accounts for about 35% of total floor area, with collaboration at 19%, support space at 24%, and amenities at 22%.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-utilization workspaces are the ones that got this ratio right. Collaboration areas, social spaces, and event zones saw the largest utilization increases year over year in CBRE’s 2026 data. The spaces people gravitate toward are the rooms where two people can brainstorm something on a whiteboard, the lounge where a conversation turns into a project, or the kitchen where a Tuesday lunch becomes an introduction to someone on another team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ebbie Wisecarver, Chief Design and Product Officer at WeWork, weighed in on this idea:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorkplace designers today focus much more on function, flexibility, and choice than they did in the past. We think about the many ways people work and design spaces to support both individual and team needs. You won’t find modern floor plans dominated by cubicles and corner offices, and certainly not in our locations.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If 68% of your employees come in to collaborate, but 60% of your space is individual desks, the math explains your utilization rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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