DesignEX Workopolis
Sydney, Australia | 2014
Radical new ‘workplace of the future’ installation at designEX
Futurespace created an installation ‘Workopolis’ for the inaugural Design Sector; Workplace at designEX 2014. ‘Workopolis’ explores the integration of production and play; and how people will create physical and cognitive space within a borderless 24/7 society.
The installation is a series of stylistic vignettes across a 60m2 area that depict scenarios of how people will be productive in the future. These environments are designed to be evocative and to promote further reflection on the intersection of technology and life.
Coworking and agile working have already begin to change the landscape of what we understand as ‘the workplace’. As traditional environments for working, learning and living start to dismantle due to the evolution of technology more emphasis will be placed on individual preferences. Everything will be customized - both in the virtual and physical world - and traditional ideas of physical space will deconstruct and become fragmented.
“Workopolis explores a future workplace where technology and space support an integrated work/life balance and the customization of everything that surrounds us” explains design director, Gavin Harris.
In addition to technology, generational differences and expectations will dramatically change the landscape of the workplace. The year 2020 will see the ratio of Millennials making up 50% of all workers. A personalized workplace will be an absolute necessity when this generation enters the workforce; they will consider the ability to customize their physical space a given.
Challenges facing business in Australia include increased competition, heightened regulation and accountability to shareholders, the attraction and retention of staff, blending traditional work methods with new more modern technologies and workstyles and marrying the need for privacy and confidentiality with the need for collaboration and mentoring. Angela Ferguson, Managing Director of futurespace elaborates “Many organisations are only too aware of these challenges and are just beginning to explore how the workplace can address some of the issues they face. Workoplis underscores these considerations and helps organisations move closer to understanding how they might implement their own workplace of the future”.
