Rethinking workspaces

Since its establishment in 1981, M Moser Associates has brought big ideas to life in new ways – designing, engineering and delivering workplace environments that bring out the best in people.

Employing over 1,200 professionals across 29 offices worldwide, the company has become a pioneering force, helping organizations transform their work environments to enhance productivity and employee wellbeing.

However, little could have prepared the company for the COVID-19 pandemic, which not only disrupted how and where people work but sent shockwaves across the commercial real estate industry, prompting a dramatic rethink into the very purpose of office workspaces themselves.

“During the first part of the pandemic, nobody knew what was going on, so we rapidly packed up our office, sent computers home and got everybody working online,” says Regional Director of M Moser Associates, Stephen Lyon.

“Since then, we’ve trickled back to work, but we don’t have a policy that people need to be in the office a fixed number of days per week. You’ve got to be in the office to satisfy the needs of our clients and to ensure collaboration with your colleagues to do our best work.”

A living lab

This new approach coincided with M Moser moving its Singapore office to a new location and transforming its workspace into a living lab, a place where the company tests and trials new ideas before bringing them to clients.

“In the three years that we’ve occupied our new office space, we’ve changed it numerous times,” Lyon says.

“We’re currently in a fairly major iteration at the moment, and we’re adding a lot more technology to enable us to harvest data, analyze data and use that thinking when we apply it to real projects with our clients.”

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This living lab concept is currently being used across 13 of M Moser’s global offices. For example, at the company’s Vancouver office, it features strategically placed sensors throughout the space to track real-time information like air quality, indicating when the workplace is at its healthiest.

At its Paris office, advanced sensors monitor the occupancy of the space, providing valuable insight into how the workspace is used and highlighting opportunities to fine-tune the design in the future.

According to M Moser’s website, by using the power of data to deepen connections between people and their environments, it sets the stage for better business, ultimately creating better, more purposeful experiences.

Market shifts

Throughout its 44-year history, M Moser is no stranger to changes in office design trends, but following the pandemic, the shift is especially notable, Lyon says.

“In Singapore, there’s been a lot of consolidation; leasing activity over the last 12–18 months has been lower than average,” he says.

“The banks have released space, and so quite a few projects have been focused on downsizing more than expansion. We’re also seeing a flight to quality; for example, the smaller occupiers have seen the opportunity to take space in grade A buildings.”

Yet while Singapore is consolidating, India’s market is booming, driven by large organizations moving out of China and looking for other low-cost environments.

“India has been really busy for us, which has led to me changing roles slightly,” he says. “I’ve relinquished the role of managing the Singapore office on a day-to-day basis and now have responsibility for South-East Asia and India.

“India is our biggest focus at the moment. China was always one of our biggest markets, but increasingly, with the political situation and increased localization for clients there, that business has changed enormously.”

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“We are honored to establish a great long-term working relationship with M Moser Associates, and it is a dynamic and exciting experience. M Moser Associates creates high-end, cutting-edge projects which require innovation and attention to detail to produce aesthetic, functional and human-centered workspaces. It is challenging yet highly rewarding, whereby we can push our boundaries and further develop our company.” – Ong Peng Bin, Project Manager, Great Team Electrical Engineering

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This has led to a roughly 10 percent increase in headcount in M Moser’s Singapore office to support regional projects as well as new offices opening in India.

“Our new offices are generally on the back of new clients,” Lyon says. “Or if a client asks us to work on a project in a new location and we don’t have an office, we see that as an opportunity to set something up small and work on it from there.

“We want to cover the country geographically so that we’re well-placed to deliver high-quality environments, and we want to work with the best-quality clients we can. We’re not interested in scale for the sake of scale.

“We’re interested in quality and working with clients who want to give their employees a great environment to work in, create cultures that allow them to thrive and help employers attract and retain top talent.”

Post-pandemic trends

One of the biggest changes affecting workspace use and design is the increase in hybrid working, whereby employees are only required in the office two or three days a week. This is allowing companies to rethink their office sizes and locations and improve quality.

“Clients are thinking more about their staff’s wellbeing and what will bring them back to the office. As they take desks away, they’re adding more facilities such as better catering or leisure options as potential draws to get staff to come back to the office,” Lyon says. “For example, in the Philippines, we’re seeing Zumba dancing and karaoke rooms, spaces to rest and even massage rooms.”

Lyon notes that this is being seen as especially important at workspaces where employees have long commute times and where employees are needed in the office. In cases where employees can work from home, employers are now far more flexible than they used to be.

“I recently visited a number of our clients’ offices in San Francisco, some of which had quite large campuses,” he says. “What stood out to me most was how extraordinarily quiet many of those offices were, even on days when you would expect them to be busy.

“Here in Asia, a lot of people have gone back to the traditional way of working, albeit with some work from home, but in America, there’s still a lot of need for clients to entice their employees back to the office.

“I think what you develop for an office is geographically dependent to a certain extent. In America, the office has got to be a destination, whereas in somewhere like Singapore, it can be less so because there’s so much infrastructure around the office environment.”

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Beyond this, there’s a greater focus on neurodiversity and how design can impact people’s ability to concentrate and operate effectively, as well as a greater openness to experimentation, Lyon says.

“Before the pandemic, the tech industry led the way in developing offices that were a little bit more friendly, a bit softer, a bit more in tune with a residential environment, but that’s no longer the case,” he says. “Now it can be anybody as they look to attract their staff to come back to the office.

“When I started, it was all about how many desks you could get in and how cheap you could build it. Capacity and density are still important, but now there’s a greater focus on having the right environment for high-performing employees.

“This includes a greater awareness of privacy. During the pandemic, we got used to our privacy at home and taking phone calls without being overheard. As a result, there’s a lot more prevalence in small spaces within the offices where people can quickly break out to take private calls or think in quiet.”

Sony Mumbai

One notable example of these new trends is Sony Music’s new office in Mumbai, designed by M Moser and completed in 2023. From the outset, Sony Music envisioned a space that would do more than house its business operations – it sought to aid its goal to transform the Indian music industry.

Guided by this vision, M Moser curated a 1,579-square-meter environment that immerses artists, employees and visitors in the brand’s values at every moment, including featured artworks and installations of sound waves and drumheads, demonstrating Sony Music’s dynamic new identity and culture.

On entering Sony Music Mumbai, people are welcomed in the lobby, where a walk of fame tells a story through portraits of its iconic roll call of artists, while a small display of vinyl albums in the reception provides a glimpse of its rich heritage.

The journey continues to the library, a busy central hub where collaboration thrives and creativity flows freely. There, people can engage in informal meetings and impromptu conversations.

Serving as the heart of the workspace, this area is surrounded by team neighborhoods, supported by workstations, meeting rooms and enclosed cabins, catering to a range of deep work and functional needs.

The culmination of this journey unfolds at the lounge, a versatile space designed for community activation. Built to adapt to any occasion, this area offers flexible setups to accommodate various events, whether hosting town hall meetings or musical performances. To enhance everyday comfort and create a satisfying experience for performing artists, acoustics were carefully considered throughout.

“The office has a kind of homely and comfortable aesthetic, and that’s exactly what the client wanted,” Lyon says.

“That seems contrary to how the record industry always came across to me, growing up with LPs, tapes and then CDs, when the record industry was all about partying and marketing. I’m sure it still is to an extent, but this project is much more of a relaxed, laid-back environment.”

Through its hospitable design and meaningful brand integration, M Moser describes the project as delivering an immersive and memorable experience that resonates with the local creative community, setting the stage for continued innovation and growth.

Leadership lessons

With M Moser’s increased focus on regional markets, Lyon finds himself spending significantly less time in the Singapore office, raising fresh challenges when it comes to building professional relationships.

“As I travel across the region, I may only be in a particular office for a single day,” Lyon says. “While it’s very efficient to join a video conference, it’s a bit more difficult building relationships compared to if you’re just in one place.

“While the pandemic got us all used to having conference calls, suddenly every single interaction became like this, so we embraced it. I don’t know whether any of us are good at it, but it is a reality.

“From a leadership perspective, I think you’ve got to be a bit more diligent when it comes to deciding whether to simply pick up the phone compared to having that face-to-face interaction.”

Lyon is also mindful of the challenge of providing leadership to the roughly 500 people who indirectly report to him.

“My leadership style is to bring people together and facilitate those interactions so those people can deliver what we set out in our business plan, what we want to achieve as designers and what we want to achieve as individuals. Getting everyone to help each other is a key part of success,” he says.

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“Fostering a seamless partnership with M Moser Associates has been instrumental in driving exceptional results. Its visionary approach to interior design, coupled with our shared values and open communication, has yielded innovative solutions, enhanced collaboration and a lasting, mutually respectful relationship.” – Tan Geok Hin, Director, Brisk Renovation

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Despite these challenges, M Moser, as a global organization, continues to produce world-class work, as celebrated by Interior Design Magazine’s Best of Year Awards, which were held in New York in December 2024.

Winning the category of large finance office was Changjiang Securities’ new home in Shanghai, a project M Moser describes as breaking away from conventional finance offices and embracing a disruptive approach that challenges traditional expectations.

The project’s most notable feature is the creation of a striking internal staircase and ribbon art installation spanning seven floors. This symbolises ‘龙腾长江’ (‘The Dragon Soars Over the Yangtze’), a Chinese cultural motif representing strength, growth and prosperity.

For the medium corporate office category, McDonald’s Hong Kong Office received an honorable mention for its office design. By fusing context and creativity, M Moser delivered a unified, immersive user experience, grounded in McDonald’s values and legacy.

As well as incorporating McDonald’s iconic golden arches logo throughout the space, M Moser incorporated a restaurant solution demo area called the IT lab, providing employees with an experimental space to simulate McDonald’s ordering processes.

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“Our past 14 years of collaboration with M Moser Associates have been a remarkable journey of growth and learning. We have navigated countless projects together. Their dedication to design, eye for detail and unparalleled creativity have been instrumental in shaping our creative work process, honing our skills to continually strive for quality in all our projects’ deliverables.” – Dixon Tan, Managing Director, D Square Projects

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These prestigious recognitions represent a significant milestone for M Moser, showcasing its international expertise in creating spaces that transform the way people work and thrive.

By balancing creativity and functionality, the company’s regional team, led by Lyon, is well-positioned to continue to meet, exceed and anticipate the evolving needs of its clients and the industries they shape.