Design Forecast 2016

Gensler Design Forecast 2016
Work
Workplace Forecast
Liberated from old constraints,
prepared to go where their talents are
best supported, an urban workforce
will reshape work and its settings.
Making choice and
connection higher
priorities.
As organizations adapt to accommodate
workers’ personal devices, a customer-like
mindset will transform internal business
processes. Faced with this new imperative,
companies will encourage their people to
use these devices to connect to each other
and to their customers and markets. They
will also offer people more options as to
where and how they choose to work.
Engagement
is the new
differentiator.
Rising expectations for engagement among
customers, organizations, and teams will spur
the growth of “open” collaboration spaces
that welcome outsiders, including autonomous
teams. They especially will want to
work across organizational and professional
boundaries, so they will gravitate toward settings
that engage them as full participants
and support their direct interaction.
It’s time to
get serious
about wellness.
New tools will allow people to monitor
not just their personal wellness, but
also the health of their work settings. In
response, organizations—including building
owners and managers—will have to take
wellness seriously. The issue reaches deep
into workplace culture, prompting the
expectation for health-supportive options,
both on-site and in the neighborhood.
A new ethos
gives rise to new
types of space.
The emphasis on making and prototyping,
along with the rise of a project-centered
workforce, will change the nature of
workspace and how it’s provided. Look for the
emergence of just-in-time settings designed
to support the activities of fast-moving,
constantly changing teams. A workforce that’s
detached from organizations will also make
“third places” more important in cities.
Day-to-day work
is blurring time
and space.
Top performers will become experts at
managing states of flow as they shift gears
between complex, work-related problems
and lifestyle pursuits. As everyday habits
change, uniform workplace solutions will go
by the wayside, replaced by a collage of
settings and approaches that help people
transition from mode to mode within dense
marketplaces of spatial variety.
Microsoft Building 17, Redmond, WA
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