‘Living workplace’ experiment to explore impact of workplace design on wellbeing

Newcastle’s Boiler Shop will become a ‘living workplace’ this month as 300 people take part in an experiment exploring how workplace design, culture and technology affect employee wellbeing and performance.

Work Beyond Walls, taking place on 9 and 10 September, will transform the venue into a working environment where people can work, meet and test different approaches to how workplaces are designed.

The two-day event will bring together people from business, human resources (HR), health, wellbeing, performance, property and workplace design.

Rather than focusing solely on the physical office, the programme will examine how factors including relationships, belonging, neuro-inclusion, grief and workplace culture interact with the environments in which people work.

It will also consider the concept of sustainable human performance and whether workplaces designed primarily around occupancy and efficiency adequately support employees to perform well without compromising their wellbeing.

The event comes as employers continue to assess the role of physical workplaces following the growth of hybrid and flexible working.

 An ongoing UK study called WorkPulse, developed by workspace consultancy Workpattern and Audiem, found close to half of respondents work flexibly between home and an employer’s workplace.

However, Workpattern said relatively few fall into what it describes as a ‘balanced hybrid’ model, with many remaining anchored predominantly to one location.

The research also points to the importance of workplace relationships. Among 2,369 employees surveyed, 85 per cent said their core colleagues were essential or very important.

Paul Glaister, Brand Principal at Workpattern and founder of Work Beyond Walls, said: “Our research to date found that close to half of people surveyed say that they work flexibly between home and an employer. Yet, very few fall into the ‘balanced hybrid’ category, with many people remaining anchored to one main setting. What’s clear is that we’re not doing enough to make working environments great.hat’s not a criticism of anyone, it’s about learning and moving things forward. We’re living through changing times and work needs to keep pace and recognise that the right workspaces go far beyond walls and empower people to do their best work.”

The programme will include sessions examining how relationships and belonging affect performance, whether workplaces adequately support neurodivergent employees and how organisations can better support colleagues experiencing grief.

Other sessions will explore wellbeing and culture within construction and design and the relationship between sustainable workplace design and employee performance.

Participants will also contribute to the next phase of WorkPulse, which gathers employee feedback across four areas: people, space, technology and business.

Feedback collected will contribute to a report examining the state of work in the North East in 2026 and future workplace trends.

Glaister added: “We’re running the event as a not-for-profit because the return we care about is a much bigger picture of workplace culture, performance and wellbeing for the whole region.”