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Eight questions to ask the visible future
As mentioned in A Tablecloth (Part I), the evolution of office space can be found to have been driven by changes in the mode of production and delivery of information and the type of information, with the ultimate aim of improving productivity. Based on this logic and on the background environment of another information revolution, we cannot help but think that in the face of an even larger and smarter information complex, will our answer to office space design remain the same as it was fifty years ago? So, the following eight possible hypotheses and questions are put forward to think about where office space design will go in the visible future.
What is the smallest office unit?
On the one hand, the way information is generated has shifted from the historical one-way input to human collaboration and human-computer interaction, and traditional tools are no longer the primary site of information generation. On the other hand, we are constantly creating mobile devices that act as mobile catalysts for the extension of the body. So as the core of the office space, the smallest basic unit of the office will change what kind of change? Don't underestimate this change, multiply it by the number of people in the workforce and it will change everything.
Is it a wall or a screen?
Our interface to obtain information from the static paper into a limited screen, and then into a relatively wireless large-area display, the scale of which is large enough to begin to carry the separation of space. In our actual design cases, we have already tried to use a large number of screens instead of the traditional "wall" partition form, and for the office space to bring more atmosphere and display variability. In the future, how will this kind of interface change affect the behavior of people in the space for information access, and then affect the corresponding space form and function?
Where I am is the office space
The mobile office has become a cliché, everyone becomes an information processor, mobile devices become the catalyst that connects to the human body, inextricably linked, and theoretically any space, including the restroom, can be transformed into an office space through space = office + x. However, it is not enough to look at the user as a behavioral agent, what happens when we look at this transformation from a top-down urban dimension?
As early as last century, William Mitchell, a renowned scholar and founder of MIT Media Lab's Smart Cities program, had hypothesized and predicted this in his book "City of Bits". What we need to think about is how to effectively plan and guide the distribution of multi-functional spaces in our cities, and whether the functional attributes of property rights will eventually be redefined by their spatial use attributes.
Stand up don't down: unleashing the beast in your heart
If you remember, we mentioned in the previous article that the earliest office form of mankind was standing. We can boldly assume that static and seated office forms are not the beginning and will not be the end. So what will be the next form of work that will dominate the office space? Our team has already practiced the "renaissance of the standing office" in a number of contemporary workspace designs, but it doesn't seem to be enough. How do we break the chains of confinement and unleash the natural beast in our hearts?
Nearly unlimited growth possibilities
In today's world, it is clear that the platform-based company business is supported by more capital and technology aspects than the order-based company business. This has forced the office space to start facing a problem that has never really arisen in its history - how to cope with the workspace needs of a company that scales 10 times in 1 year?
Through design practice, our team found that the "office complex", which is a combination of scenario-based office furniture as the basic unit and strict and real-time analysis of the use of efficiency, can be a preliminary solution to the problem. However, how to maximize the limited space to support the relatively unlimited and rapid growth will still be a long period of time to become the problem of office space design.
Machine: "please give me an office of my own"
Putting aside the topic of ai and robotics, it seems to have been virtualized information delivery, behind which is a large number of servers, computers and information transmission equipment layout, the more virtual the more entity is a constant energy trend, office space will not only serve people, but also for the physical information services, how to design for these soft infrastructure belongs to their office space? Humanization, air, sunlight are not under this demand for design measurement, security, durability, fault tolerance will become the new design norms.
Please design an invisible office space for me
Enterprise-oriented services will become the main theme of the second half of China's Internet, and the industrial Internet will put forward a more subversive requirement for the change of office space: invisible virtual collaborative workspace and platform. We only need to simply compare the current online collaboration applications, we can find its product logic and the relationship between the modules, and office space is so similar. This is just the beginning, we have not yet been able to perceive the humanized and atmospheric side of space design from these cold interfaces, and at the same time, we must also recognize the seriousness of the problem: the knowledge system accumulated by space designers over the past several hundred years is almost impossible to be applied to this brand new scenario and demand.
Spatial hierarchy of biochemical organization
As long as an office space needs to be organized, it must meet the hierarchical logic of the organizational structure. Compare these companies with their headquarters buildings and you will see that organizational structure is the "invisible hand" of space design. So if all the organizational forms in the diagram are not solidified, but are constantly undergoing rapid iteration, how will the design of the office space respond?
There are many new dynamic organizational structures that have taken shape nowadays, such as decentralization, biologization, self-organization, etc. For these, the way of designing under the existing experience will face great challenges and changes. Our design team has begun to explore a new model in which the office space is defined as a city, where each area is free to grow, change and reconfigure.
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