The Future of Work

Last week I attended a talk titled ‘Work, Interrupted’ at the Haworth Showroom as a part of a series of conversations held at Clerkenwell Design Week. Situated on the basement floor of the showroom (designed by Giulio Cappellini) in St John’s Street, Clerkenwell, the panelists presented their opinions to a selection of about 20 attendees from the industry who were huddled around with their prosecos in hand. 

Featuring Oliver Marlow from Studio Tilt, Alice Fung from OO Architects and Jeremy Myerson and Imogen Privett from the Royal Collage of Art in London; the panelists were there to discuss the benefits of co-working, the future of the workplace and answer the question of what is interrupting our work life today?

Here are 7 key things that were mentioned:

1: The Perfect Storm

From a historical perspective humans have been working for over a 1000 years and only 150 years ago did an interruption occur with the force of the industrial revolution, which resulted in separating the spheres of work life and home life.

The interruption now in the 21^st century is just as profound, the digital age has given more agency to the individual and the spheres of home and work are now being reunited.  A perfect storm has happened, with technology giving us a new lease of life.

2: Seeking our Mission

Work is no longer seen as ‘work’, we are identifying what our passions and missions are and the margins between work and life are becoming blurred. The boundaries between organisations and people have also shifted; we no longer have to work in traditional management hierarchies.

3: The rise of Coworking

The word ‘COWORKING’ is now used everywhere, it has in fact become a bit of a cliché much like the word ‘Sustainability’, where no one really know what the word actually means anymore? Apparently in 2010, the word coworking (without the hyphen) was invented and the idea exploded all over the world, with people forming their own coworking spheres and businesses adopting the technique as a way of remaining competitive.  It is now known that a whole generation will not work in a traditional environment.

4: It’s a Rebellion

The evolution of coworking is a rebellion against the traditional office. It is important to understand that coworking is the future of office design responding to the needs of its workers. The traditional office is no longer working for everyone; we are working longer and longer hours and our jobs are becoming more remote and more digital.

5: Taking Ownership

There is a difference between the image that the word coworking projects and the actual practice of it. We as designers are trying to react and manipulate around the edges and need to understand that organising people in an open plan space is not the only mechanism to unleash innovation or passion in an individual. Engaging with the future of work is not just about moving walls or tables on paper. We need to think beyond this and understand the role of governance and people taking ownership of their own space. From chicken coops to free range chickens, it is better to not think of people as chickens at all.

6: #Popups

We are now seeing an increase of more theatrical aspects in the world of design within both space and products. Everything has somehow become less static. Popups have gone from being trendy to a part of the everyday with huge brands such as Selfridges jumping onto the bandwagon. The huge focus on interaction design and customer experience will only get bigger.

7: The Next Steps

The new challenge for architecture is the need for architects to engage and collaborate with social scientists (psychologists, sociologists, ethnographers, anthropologists) to create space with reasons and meanings, backed by data and evidence. 

Highlights from Clerkenwell Design Week

So, every year the local and international design community descends upon Clerkenwell in London for a 3 day showroom, exhibitions and party extravaganza. The design festival, now in it's fifth year, is a hotspot of creativity, connecting itself to over 60 showrooms in the area to promote the latest products in design. Clerkenwell, since the industrial ages has always been an area associated with traditional crafts from printers to jewelers to clockmakers, staged in unique warehouses and factories. These have since been transformed into creative studio spaces, attracting many architects (more per square mile here than anywhere else) and designers from across the world.

My experience of this years Design Week was unfortunately limited but yet eventful (the pains of working 9 -6!).  It involved a quick dash around the Design Factory situated in the wonderful Grade II listed Farmilioe building, which acted as the central hub for the festival. All the floors were filled with various designers revealing their latest projects, many using this festival as a way of launching their newest products. We spent just under an hour zooming through, where I found myself taking pictures of mostly lights and lightbulbs, clearly attracted to to the shiniest products in the room! For the past few weeks I have also noticed my new fascination for the colour yellow; perhaps at the turn of the seasons, in the midst of this occasional rain,  it is reminding me that summer is fast approaching.

There was also a visit to the Haworth Showroom for a talk titled ' Work, Interrupted' (more on this later), after work drinks at the Bolon showroom where they served Oysters, Smoked Salmon and Proseco (a lovely combination!) followed by after parties at Kusch & Co and Humanscale.

Spotlight on Marrakech: Colour

Having just got back from Marrakech after a spontaneous trip with my best friend, I find myself walking the streets of London and feeling that something is missing. Glancing around, I came to the realisation that the world here is just a little less colourful. Across many of the cafes in the city, the beautiful stark contrast of lush greenery against the crumbling clay was a recurrent sight, as well as the intricately painted doors and wall details. Turning corners in Marrakech in the wonderfully complicated Medina, the dusty red clay walls would lead you into flashes of dazzling tagine pots and beautifully coloured rugs; there was never a moment of visual disappointment.

Red, Pink & Orange

The imperial city of Marrakech itself is built from a red clay from the Haouz plains situated west of the City. The clay is mixed with water and then spread onto the buildings, which in the Marrakech heat quickly dries to a sort of dusty salmon pink colour.

On a brief tour of the Ourika Vallery in the Atlas Mountains, our guide told us to watch out for colour variations in the different Berber villages,  as it is known that each settlement is built from the clay of the Mountain that it sits on. We passed red villlages, orange ones and more yellowy ones, each as beautiful as each other but all slightly different. It would be interesting to imagine if the colour of the city walls has a slight reflection on the characteristics of it's inhabitants, as it is known that colours trigger chemical responses in our brains which can affect is physically.

Blue & Majorelle Blue

Everywhere you walk in Marrakech, all around you there is a distinct bright shade of cobalt blue. From pots to doors to benches, 'Majorelle Blue' as it is now called was created by the French artist Jacques Majorelle in the 1930s. He was inspired by the beautiful blue tiles in Morroccan houses and decided to embelish his house and garden in his estate in Ville Nouvelle in the exotic colour. After his death in the 80s, Yves Saint Laurent restored the house and garden, opening up the gardens to the public, creating it into a beautiful attraction and exposing the trend to the rest of the city. The blue is now used in many fashionable Riads and courtyards all over the city and looks incredible juxtaposed against greenery.

The colour blue also features in other parts of Morocco with the picturesque town of Chefchaouen know as 'the blue city' in the North West of Morocco.  Chefchaouen is known for it's relaxing atmosphere, which many suggest is down to it's calming colour. The city was painted blue by the Jewish refugees who lived there in the 1930s and and a friend that we met in Marrakech explained to us that many Jewish families all over Morrocco also painted the doors in the houses blue as it is known to be the colour of the Divine. This was also evident when we stumbled across one of the old synagogues in the Medina and everything was painted a wonderful bright indigo.
However, the blue colour is also supposed to ward of summer mosquitos who misinterpret the colour as clear water!

Welcome!