What We’ve Learned About Office Space in the GTA (And Why Hybrid Isn’t a Floor Plan)

If you’ve been in this industry long enough, you start to see patterns.

When Sensyst started, most offices in the GTA followed a similar formula: a reception desk, a large boardroom, a ring of private offices, and a sea of workstations in the center. The question was simple: “How many people can we fit?”

Fast-forward to today, and the question has undergone a complete transformation.

Hybrid schedules, shifting headcounts, new tech, rising expectations from staff—now the real question sounds more like:

“What should this space do for us over the next five years?”

And that’s where a lot of workplaces are stuck. They’re paying for square footage that were designed for a version of their business that no longer exists.

Here’s how we’re thinking about that problem now, and what’s actually working across the GTA.

1. Before You Redesign Anything, Look at Reality

Many companies jump straight to “new layout” or “new furniture.” We always start with something less glamorous: paying attention.

You don’t need a dashboard full of sensors to figure out what’s happening in your office:

Which areas feel busy, even on slow days?
Which rooms are always booked... and which ones never are?
Where do people camp out when they need to concentrate?
What spaces feel “dead” no matter what you put in them?

When we walk a floor with a client, patterns show up quickly. We’ll pair those observations with whatever data exists—meeting room bookings, hybrid schedules, headcount plans—and you suddenly have a much clearer picture of what’s working and what’s just taking up air-conditioning.

From there, office planning becomes a business decision, not a guessing game. (If you want the deep dive on how we do this, this is where our office space planning services come in.)

2. Space Is a Story About Your Culture

One thing that’s changed since our early days: people notice when a workplace feels generic.

If your office could belong to any company in any city, that’s a missed opportunity. The physical space is often the first real impression clients, new hires, and partners get of who you are.

Ask yourself:

Does the office feel as innovative/steady/creative/disciplined as you say you are?
Would a candidate walk in and think, “Yes, I can see myself here”?
Does the layout align with how information actually flows through the company?

A law firm in the Financial District, a manufacturer in Mississauga, and a fintech scale-up in King West will all answer those questions differently—and their spaces should reflect that. Culture isn’t a tagline on a wall. It’s baked into how a workplace is planned.

3. People First, Not Just “Productivity”

Productivity matters. So does utilization. However, if the space feels exhausting, loud, or uninviting, people will work around it rather than with it.

Human-centred design isn’t about adding a ping-pong table. It’s about the basics:

Natural light where people actually sit—not just in a lonely corner.
Acoustics that let you think without hearing every call.
A mix of seating and postures: standard desks, collaboration zones, focus spots, casual lounges.
Small, intentional touches—such as texture, greenery, and softer materials—that make the day feel less like a grind.

We’ve seen time and again that once a space “feels right,” the numbers follow: better focus, better collaboration, and less friction.

4. Connection Is Designed, Not Assumed

The last decade gave us an “open concept everything” wave. Many companies tore down walls and then wondered why collaboration didn’t magically improve.

The reality: connection needs structure.

Some of the most effective workplaces we’ve helped re-plan in the GTA have:

Obvious, inviting places for teams to gather without booking a boardroom
Circulation routes that encourage people to bump into each other
Visual interest in collaboration zones so they don’t feel like leftover space
Clear separation between “loud” and “quiet” areas so people aren’t constantly negotiating noise

The goal isn’t to pack people into one big, open room; it’s to create a mix of spaces where meaningful conversations can actually happen.

5. Comfort Has a Job To Do

“Make it more comfortable” has become a common request. Fair enough—after a few years of working from home, nobody wants to sit in a rigid, fluorescent-lit cube all day.

But comfort on its own isn’t the target. Comfort should support the work.

In practice, that looks like:

Communal areas that feel relaxed enough to linger, but structured enough actually to share ideas
Focus rooms that feel secure and quiet, not like repurposed closets
Cafés and lounges with power, surfaces, and lighting that make them real working options, not just photo ops

The difference between a “nice” office and a high-performing one is that every soft touch still has a purpose.

6. Flexibility That Doesn’t Feel Temporary

If there’s one lesson hybrid work has made impossible to ignore, it’s this: static offices age quickly.

The offices that hold up best over time share a common trait: they’re built to flex without ripping everything out.

Instead of:

Building one oversized boardroom that’s booked twice a month
You create meeting rooms that can be combined or divided.

Instead of:

Locking in a rigid sea of fixed workstations
You choose workstation systems that can grow, shrink, or reconfigure as teams change.

Instead of:

Adding permanent walls every time you need one more private office
You use demountable partitions and thoughtful zoning to keep options open.

This isn’t about turning your space into a furniture showroom on wheels. It’s about ensuring your next significant shift in headcount, workflow, or lease doesn’t mean starting from scratch.

Where Sensyst Lands on All This

After decades of watching the workplace change in the Greater Toronto Area, our view is simple:

Most offices don’t need to get dramatically bigger or smaller.
They need to get smarter.
And that starts with planning, not paint colours.

If you’re looking at your space and thinking, “This doesn’t really match how we work anymore,” that’s usually the first sign it’s time to rethink the plan.

You don’t have to solve the next five years all at once—but you can absolutely design a workplace that won’t hold you back as things evolve. That’s the kind of work we like getting involved in.