What If Offices Didn’t Exist? A Thought Experiment That Shows Why Offices Still Make Sense

Just a few years ago, we might not even have considered such a scenario. Offices represented a given part of working life. But then came the pandemic, remote work and the hybrid model. Suddenly, we realized that professionals could perform many jobs from almost anywhere. And that’s precisely why exploring these questions today makes sense.

At first glance, the answer seems simple: in a world where people had always worked remotely, no office buildings or business districts would exist; nor would daily commutes connect homes and offices. Fewer commuters would crowd the roads, leading to fewer traffic jams. Life would unfold more locally, in a "15-minute city" model. But does that cover everything? Definitely not—many more interconnections and aspects of office life require consideration.

The Office as a Catalyst

No, a world without offices wouldn’t collapse. Companies would continue to operate, people would work, and the economy wouldn’t grind to a halt. The difference, then, would not center on whether we work, but how quickly we learn, make decisions, come up with new ideas and build relationships with people.

People’s proximity drives productivity and innovation most strongly. That explains why cities have attracted companies, experts and capital for decades—not just through their buildings, but through their density: of people, expertise, services, ideas and opportunities. Economists call this the agglomeration bonus. In practice, this means that when people and companies stay close to one another, they learn faster and more often create something new.

And the office serves as one of the places where this effect occurs. Not every office, of course. But when architects design a workspace well, it goes beyond a mere room where people sit at computers. It transforms into an infrastructure for collaboration, knowledge sharing and the generation of new ideas. For companies, this represents an important shift in perspective. They no longer ask how much space they need, but what added value it should provide.

More Than Just a Place to Work

Moreover, the value of offices does not end at the space’s doorstep. Work done by office teams generates economic activity that extends far beyond the employers themselves and influences the functioning of entire cities.

This activity takes the form of employee wages, tax revenue, contracts for service providers, public transportation, restaurants, retail and investments in public infrastructure. Offices thus create an entire ecosystem that functions precisely because companies, employees and services concentrate in one place.

If offices had never existed, this economic activity would not have disappeared. Some work and consumption would have shifted to households, smaller cities or towns. The overall balance, however, would differ. Fewer personal contacts, a lower concentration of knowledge and slower sharing of experiences would gradually affect productivity and economic growth.

Offices, therefore, do not constitute merely an operating expense. They belong to a broader system that helps cities and companies grow faster. Without them, the economy would continue to function: but less efficiently, with a lower concentration of knowledge, lower productivity and a smaller base of public revenue.

A City Without Offices Would Be Different

The example of large cities best illustrates this point. Prague, Brno and Ostrava did not develop into business centers solely because of the buildings that developers built. They evolved and grew thanks to the daily movement of people, expertise and companies that needed to locate close to one another.

Without offices, the scale of migration to the largest metropolitan areas would drop. In the case of Prague, such a scenario would mean a population of only 840,000 instead of today’s roughly 1.4 million. Fewer people translates to fewer companies, fewer services and less daily movement—all things that fuel the urban economy. This also leads to lower local tax revenues and, consequently, reduced funding for infrastructure such as the metros (subways), trams, roads, schools, healthcare, parks and public services. Cities build infrastructure where they find a critical mass of people and movement.

Conversations You Can’t Plan

And that’s not all. Office work includes another dimension—many important discussions within companies take place during informal moments: after a meeting, by the coffee machine, on the way to the elevator or when someone from another team asks a seemingly simple question.

These ordinary moments tend to carry surprising value. Someone might connect two unrelated projects; another might recommend a contact or devise a solution that no one would ever discuss in a scheduled meeting. Sociologist Mark Granovetter called this the strength of weak ties. Close relationships provide us with a sense of security, while weaker, more casual contacts often bring new opportunities and access to information outside our daily bubble. When working remotely, people can easily maintain relationships, carry out projects, hold meetings and workshops and make decisions. However, replicating serendipity proves much harder, even though it acts as one of the most important drivers of innovation.

A modern office, therefore, should aim higher than just providing desks. Designers should shape it as a space for meeting, the flow of knowledge, mutual learning and building connections: things that communication apps cannot fully replace.

A Place That Brings People Together

Remote work does not represent a dead end. Just as the old model of five days at a desk has become outdated and won’t return. But today, organizations need the office for a different reason. When well-planned, an office (or rather its space and design) achieves what video conferencing cannot: it bridges the distance between people, deepens relationships, speeds up decision-making, strengthens corporate culture and creates space for things that no calendar can schedule.

A world without offices might offer more comfort and fewer morning commutes. At the same time, however, it would lose some of the spontaneity that drives innovation, collaboration and urban development. So the question today does not revolve around whether we need offices. What matters far more is designing them so that people don’t go there out of obligation, but because these spaces truly create and add value.