When one thinks of the future, it usually involves extremely advanced technology, like hover cars and computer chips in our brains, but usually one never gives the workplace any thought. What would our workplace look like in the future? Would we be sitting at levitating desks? Or possibly communicating with holograms instead of by e-mail? The possibilities are endless!
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Staples Business Advantage has had similar thoughts! It recently teamed up with Metropolis magazine to hold a design contest, asking participants to design what they think their office will look like in the next 5 years. Sadly, no hover cars were thought up … But one honorable mention does include a hologram-type component.
Ethelind Coblin Architect was awarded the top prize for its “Co-Gen Flex Space” design. Ethelind’s design focuses on the urban dimension of temporary flexible workspaces and how young entrepreneurial professionals and freelancers may interface with an active community of seniors. The chosen site for its design is one of the largest naturally occurring retirement communities in Manhattan, New York. Staples and Metropolis chose this design because the “Co-Gen Flex concept connects two often separate generations: young entrepreneurial professionals and active retirees.”
Jie Zhang, a designer, researcher, and cofounder of OPT, a platform for design inquiry and technological research, won runner up for the “FoAm” design. The idea around FoAm is based on the rapidly growing freelancer economy, which will also create a desire to reconnect with the physical world and with other human beings. FoAm was inspired by the inflatable architecture movement in the 1960s and is made of multiple active layers. FoAm is basically a giant inflatable ball you can work in and then collapse and take with you to a different location.
Joseline Delgado Torres, from Chihuahua, Mexico, is a student at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She took an honorable mention for her design called, “Yuka: A Japanese Inspired Communal Area.” Yuka takes the Japanese floor culture and emits an ambience of hominess, playfulness, and comfort while bringing out your inner child. Yuka virtually eliminates all chairs. If your employees are looking to sit, they have the option to sit on a floor cushion or futuristic-looking swing set.
While these designs haven’t come to fruition yet, they are definitely interesting takes on an otherwise dull environment. To view the full designs and to see other designs not mentioned above, click here.