Tomorrow’s Workplace Design Competition

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What will the workplace of 2021 look like? Architects, designers, and students tackled this question in the

“Tomorrow’s Workplace” competition hosted by Staples Business Advantage and Metropolis magazine. In

designing their near-future offices, contestants had to incorporate top workplace themes such as collaboration,

wellness and productivity, office culture, and sustainability. Entrants also gave their own vision of what will make

workplaces in 2021 effective and productive. The top five winners are featured here. We identified several trends

shared across the winning entries that addressed this evolving work environment:

Flexibility & Customization

Workspaces can be physically reconfigured

to fit worker needs and environmental factors

may be tailored to personal preferences.

01 Mobility

An individual workspace can be moved to a

communal area, may not have any walls and

may even be packed into a backpack.

02

Open Workflow

Moving beyond meeting rooms to galleries,

and other shared spaces, workspaces will be

more open to encourage collaboration.

03 Sustainability

Workspaces may be outdoors in nature or

repurpose old warehouses and buildings, and

can be redesigned without traditional renovation.

04

Competition

PRESS RELEASE

CONTEST INFO

Our project focuses on the urban dimension of temporary flexible workspaces and how young entrepreneurial professionals and freelancers may interface with an active community of seniors. The chosen site is a large residential co-op, Penn South, which is also one of the largest naturally occurring retirement communities in Manhattan.

While shared workspace offices are proliferating, the generational component seems rarely considered. What draws many independent professionals to shared workplace environments is the possibility of broad social connectivity. A co-generational workspace operates under the assumption that a multi-generational cross-over can add significant value. This may mean access to decades of work experience for young professionals and possible technical expertise from young professionals. The flexible, individual work spaces are equipped with plug and play monitors and

Co-Gen Flex Space

WINNER

keyboards, with access to printing, 3-D printing, storage-on-demand, as well as conferencing technology, software program usage on-demand, and other evolving hardware and software. The proposed structure accommodates a cafe and food court with food truck parking spaces for users and the wider neighborhood. Further, a daycare facility will provide daycare space. Both will add to the financial viability of the project.

BY ETHELIND COBLIN ARCHITECT (TEAM: MATTHIAS NEUMANN, LOUIS LIPSON, NIKOLA GRADINSKI, ERIC COHEN, ETHELIND COBLIN, JENNIFER JUDGE): Click the following link to see more of Ethelind Coblin Architect’s work: ethelindcoblinarchitect.com.

What draws many independent professionals to shared workplace environments is the possibility of broad social connectivity.

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For the chosen site, a new two-story building is proposed. The program and co-generational intent requires a universal design approach that allows easy access to all spaces and amenities, and negotiates spatial hierarchies, visual orientation, acoustic environments, and controlled space, while providing a generous and flexible work environment. The program and spatial experience provide intimacy and spatial control.

The renderings intend to convey materiality, lighting and a variety of spatial situations. Materiality: A wood panel ceiling, irregular wood columns and other absorptive materials provide acoustical control to allow for a large yet intimate spatial experience. Light: All areas have access to daylighting; workspace environments can control glare and adverse lighting impact. The main space is lit by a large clearstory window with northern light.

Spatial hierarchy and diversity: The main spaces on the first floor are the temporary flexible work environment, a triangular space slightly below street level, and the double-height foyer space with adjacent food and social amenities. The co-gen flex space is defined by a concrete enclosure that holds safe-deposit style storage lockers for members of the work space. The second floor provides more intimate meeting and lounging pods for relaxation and group work. A courtyard separates the workspace area from the daycare facility.

> See Full Submission

A multi-generational cross-over space can add significant value.

y Flexibility & Customization y Openness

Showcased Trends:

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acoustically insulating, reimagine the workplace at the scale of the body. The renderings illustrate scenarios of how we work within an inflatable office, in a FoAM working area on a garage floor, and at a FoAM community on an adapted parking lot. The diagrams further describe the technical details of the inflatable office, its formal and functional possibilities, and elements in converting obsolete parking infrastructure into FoAM workplaces.

> See Full Submission

The proposal celebrates the rapidly growing freelancer economy, which makes up 35 percent of the U.S. workforce in 2016 and is predicted to grow to 40 percent by 2020.

Currently, digital nomads flow between homes, coffee shops and co-working spaces. In the near future, they will demand not only more space, but also mobile, personalized and responsive environments. The increasingly digitalized lifestyle will also create a desire to reconnect with the physical world and with other human beings. FoAM emerges out of such needs.

FoAM aims to improve overall efficiency for existing and new businesses and also unleashes the latent value in vacant city infrastructure. Inspired by inflatable architecture from the 1960s, FoAM is made of multiple active layers. The inflatables, collapsible but otherwise thermally and

FoAMRUNNER UP

BY JIE ZHANG: Jie Zhang is a designer, researcher, and co-founder of OPT, a platform for design inquiry and technological research. Check out the interesting work showcased on OPT at optopt.tumblr.com.

y Flexibility y Mobility

Showcased Trends:

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Photo Gallery: FoAM by Jie Zhang

HONORABLE MENTION

Sustainability for the Open Framework. The configuration of larger spaces is composed of aggregations of the base unit—a 3.65m x 5m module. Two of them (3.65m x 10m) create a small workstation unit. Four (7.3m x 10m) create a gathering space, small library, outdoor cafe or lobby space. There are also walkway units and garden units (3.65m x 1.52m) connecting programs.

> See Full Submission

Future office = Gallery for knowledge networking and collaboration. PAMO suggests a gallery-like space for people to walk and talk, with nodes for collaboration and reflection. This system allows for the adaptive reuse of any space, such as an abandoned warehouse. Better Ergonomics = More walking + More talking. As new technology accelerates the working culture and combines with more flexible social lives, it will push people to walk and talk to each other more than sitting in a designated workstation would allow.

Fluid Technology + Prefabrication = Office can happen anywhere. As prefabrication in architecture combines with post-industrial warehouses, the office becomes more like a gallery and cafe. Sustainability and Flexibility = Investment for the Future. PAMO can respond as rapidly as technology changes without the limitations of traditional construction and renovation.

PAMO: Prefabricated Adaptive Mobile Offices

BY JIN YOUNG SONG (WITH ANDREW KOUDLAI): Jin Young Song, AIA, assistant professor at University at Buffalo, SUNY, is a registered architect in New York State. He is a founding principal at Dio Inno Architecture.

y Mobility y Sustainability

Showcased Trends:

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Photo Gallery: PAMO by Jin Young Song

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literal sense. The essence of the Japanese floor culture is depicted by users interacting in a playful and collaborative manner. Each photo and rendering instills an ambience of calm simplicity to contrast our constant use of advancing technology. Through materials and function, Yuka’s design elaborates on reviving our inner child, unafraid and curious to engage with our environment and the people in it.

> See Full Submission

A workspace that promotes the idea of collaboration, integration, and face-to-face communication are the aspects Yuka envisions. By implementing Japanese floor culture, Yuka emits an ambience of hominess, playfulness, and comfort while bringing out our child-like selves, curious to interact with our environment and the people in it.

Collaboration: Throughout the smaller details of the furniture pieces, such as the subtle rope that unifies the floor cushions, or the floor detail that gives the illusion of tables being connected, each piece of furniture illustrates and provokes human connection. Health: Approaching the floor culture lifestyle helps users improve digestion, make them more flexible, and calms their mind.

Each piece of furniture was designed to illustrate the movement of collaboration in both a metaphoric and

Yuka: a Japanese Inspired Communal Area

HONORABLE MENTION

BY JOSELINE DELGADO TORRES: Joseline Delgado Torres, from Chihuahua, Mexico, is a student at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Check out her online portfolio to see more of her work: www.behance.net/jostor.

y Mobility y Openness

Showcased Trends:

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Photo Gallery: Yuka by Joseline Delgado Torres

HONORABLE MENTION

workspaces. Also, projections on the wall enable instant feedback. People can immediately see and steer processes to address the needs of the business.

The renderings are a polemical statement, structured from a utopic vision down to a very concrete application of an interactive table in an open office structure.

> See Full Submission

A Phase Space is a space where all possible states of a system are represented. The Technobody deals with the dehumanization through our extended phenotypes. How does the workspace look and how does it relate to the human body if the architecture is an intelligent interface or artefact?

The Workplace of the Future is about the intelligent fusion of complex systems. Therewith, the design of furniture and offices is not shape-driven anymore. The new task is to blur the boundaries between technology, interface, and being in relation to real-time data and technology. Technology cards have been created, based on a market scan of available and futuristic technologies. The idea is to provide workers with these cards and to play according to their wishes. The shown interactive table with screen-less projection is just one tool, which will become an essential part of future

Phase Space & the Technobody

BY DIETMAR KOERING (WITH SIMON BECKER & DUANE HARRY): Dietmar Koering is an architect, researcher, and educator living in Cologne & Berlin. He is head of the architectural research office ARPHENOTYPE.

y Flexibility & Customization

Showcased Trend:

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Photo Gallery: Phase Space and the Technobody by Dietmar Koering

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As the workplace evolves, so do customer and employee expectations. To help set your space

apart, Staples Business Advantage® offers bright solutions, hands-on assistance, creative services

and hundreds of the most respected brands in business furniture. Whether you are furnishing a new

office, revitalizing an existing facility, or simply keeping your furnishings up to date, Workplace Studio

can help you create the best possible space for your employees and customers.

Brittany Knauth

Marketing Manager

brittany.knauth@staples.com

Nikki D’Addario

Public Relations Manager

nikki.daddario@staples.com

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