The workplace of the future

PROJECTLAB

THE WORKPLACE OF THE FUTURE

Project: The workplace of the future Location: Madrid Authors: Jorge Camacho, Javier L贸pez-Menchero Collaborations (translator): Candela S谩nchez Project date: September 2012 Type: Contest

PROJECTLAB (La Latina)

CURRENT WORKPLACE TRENDS Most institutions and companies are still based on a pyramidal system of power and work. Nevertheless, this is beginning to change. Multiple factors are transforming these concepts of work and therefore are also changing the space in which it takes place.

Open areas

TECHNOLOGY The unstoppable development of the technologies of information and communication are the main factor in the evolution of the labour market and its workplaces. The possibility to interconnect people over long distances allows collaborations between more diverse groups.

Closed areas

Since the majority of citizens have acces to these technologies, distances between brand, product, worker and client are reduced.

EXPANSION AND GLOBALISATION

Patios

Pools

The will of brands today to expand the market on a worldwide scale is dispersing the workspaces and timetables (given the connection between scattered people). All of this generates a more complex network which will only function correctly and efficiently if decision processes are cut shorter: more power to more workers.

Windows

Low Temp.

Complete heat entrance

FREELANCE WORKERS

High Temp.

Necessary heat entrance.

Storage of excess heat

Very low Temp.

Use of stored heat

The ground floor is used to create a facility that can be used by both users and neighbouring people, although it does not belong to the ProjectLAB (La Latina) as such.

The ongoing growth of the now very common workers that don’t belong to a company, searching for projects that adapt to their own interests, increases the freedom and reduces boundaries between the brands and companies, opening the market much wider. The more freelance workers there are, the more companies try to retain talent, improving the laboral quality of their workers.

These factors have given rise to what could be referred to as the seeds of future workplaces.

Companies that aim to be innovative and creative begin to shift the perspective of workspaces to a more relaxing atmosphere where the worker feels better.

PROJECTLAB In the future there will be facilities prepared for turning into workspaces, adapting to the aforementioned future work tendencies. In these spaces, all that is necessary to propice a distendedly carried out job which promotes creativity will be present.

We propose a wide network of those facilities called ProjectLAB, which one must become an “associate” of (be it through a company or freely) to use its facilities. With this accreditation, the said associate will be able to enter any ProjectLAB, having an ideal workspace practically anywhere (forcing the disposal of the fixed workplace).

Projects Direct connection Indirect connection Network FUTURE WORKPLACE TRENDS In the future, social changes that are starting to occur will produce substantial changes in the way we understand work as well as where we work.

Working in an office or having a fixed workspace will be only an option in the future, since with the current and growing technological development it will be possible to work anywhere. Workspaces that have more to offer will be used like for example spaces with the possibility of direct collaboration increasing social cohesion in these projects.

In this way, workplaces will be stripped of resrictions and schedules, offering many possibilities to the user. The workspace will become a place of relax, leisure and work.

The role of the boss will vanish, and also the sense of brands will change to turn into groups of people, sharing interests. This will increase people’s implications with brands

or companies, which is essential for maximum productivity. Each one of these people will be able to participate in whatever projects appeal to said person as a representative of the brand without being imposed to do so. This would be an encouragement for free work.

It is also possible that a certain group of people, collaborators and co-thinkers of diverse brands get together with a common will to create a new project. In the future, projects will be the protagonists, in such a way that workers will join onto them depending on their aptitudes and interests.

This system will generate networks made of people and projects, working simultaneously from all over the world increasing both cultural and generational diversity.

Snack and coffee bars 5% Cultural areas 5%

Amenities 10%

Relax areas 5%

Leisure areas 15%

These spaces will not only serve work purposes, but they will also have a sociocultural aim, for exhibitions and similar events as well as collaborations with universities to promote their use by students (to facilitate a multigenerational space).

There will be two types of spaces: One will be up for rent by collectives or projects for a set amount of time and open exclusively for the members of these groups. The second type of space, being the main idea and the most abundant type, is one where anybody can arrive and acommodate themselves to carry out the tasks they wish to. As mentioned before, one must be affilliated to ProjectLAB in order to have access to any of these spaces.

In this way, a much closer and direct contact between brands can be generated, which in turn would increase the number of collaborations, creating networks of projects which would be related to a certain extent in some way or another. This concept would lead to projects with common and similar interests and ideas coinciding in the same ProjectLAB. Every ProjectLAB will be situated in a well communicated area, with easy access. We are describing a particular ProjectLAB located in Madrid, where the old Sportcenter “La Latina” was.

Free areas 25%

Private areas (for rent)

Exhibitions and congresses 10%

Private work areas 10%

Public work areas 15% Public areas (all members)

Exhibition

Closed leisure area

Amenities Free areas

Workshop Snack and coffee bars

Open leisure areas

Patios Public work areas

Relax areas Private work areas

Green area and sustainability

Exposiciones y congresos

7m floor 1

N

E 1:500

11m floor 2

16m roof