We can make things alone, but we innovate together. No one person can have all the ideas, and it is the exposure to others' approach that opens the mind and invites the unplanned linking of concepts to create something new.
A passively received algorithmic soundtrack comforts us in our pandemic-induced solitude, a perfect backdrop to perpetual snacking facilitated by working 10 feet from your kitchen. An office can balance this passivity, bringing us to a place of well-considered meals and content worth focusing on. A narrowing of attention and deepening of the senses that only purpose-built spaces can provide.
The paradigm has permanently shifted. The early 21st century saw workplaces crowded with toys and colors, distractions from work, framed as amenities at work, Adult Day-care. No one is going back to work to play foosball. An office environment should create unique configurations of people and space that awaken the mind to alternative thinking, that reveal the pleasure of working instead of avoidance.