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.