From the end of employment as we know it to office design on demand, see what the next generation of architects and designers are dreaming up for the office of the future.
Mastering the Work/Life Balancing Act
People and the organisations they work for will develop better boundaries between work and life to encourage deeper, more meaningful engagement with both. This means learning when to disconnect from tech, an end to multitasking, using analytics to understand when they are in prime condition to work and seeking out jobs that allow them to work during peak performance hours (which may not be 9–5).
Making Time for Face Time
The benefits of working at home – pyjamas, productivity – will only fulfil you for so long. Eventually, you’ll be drawn back to the in-person connections you can find in the office. Future Staters see the workplace of the future as a magnet that attracts and focuses energy in a world where a by-product of improving communications technology has a natural tendency to grow the divide between us. They’re pushing designs that promote face time (the non-iPhone nvariety) in spaces that accelerate authentic connection.
An Amazon Approach to Staffing
Soon, the Amazon mindset of “give me what I need, the second I need it”, will apply to more than paper towels and prestige TV. This accelerating need for speed, coupled with a steep rise in the number of freelancers, could create a new way to staff companies. Organisations will be built and rebuilt project by-project, by handpicking from a large pool of consultants. This post- employee model will let you expedite processes, get to market quicker, design better and faster and innovate productively, all by harnessing the industry’s top talent for the specific task at hand.
A Brave New Era of Client Feedback
Future Staters dream of a smart device that could show a design team exactly how people respond to the music, furniture, lighting and general vibe of a space. Once a person’s watch captures the response and the data loads into an app, the app populates a Pinterest page, makes product suggestions and translates a good feeling – one that the client might have struggled to articulate – into tangible design inspiration. Between the watch and the app, you’ll get direct responses to the stimuli in the space and the information you need to act on it.
Trending Towards Techno-Optimism
The designers dream that the impossibility of last-minute client requests – cutting half a million pounds from a budget, value engineering a 10-storey building to 8 – might soon be a thing of the past. Across our four events, we heard about robot contractors, next-level modelling software and automated on-demand furniture manufacturing. Despite some of the anxiety the designers tapped into about our personal relationships with tech, when it came to the promise of AI, big data and robotics for aiding the design process, the group was enthusiastic.
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