In 20 years, what will the typical work day be like? That is the question the Working Worlds in 2030 project is trying to answer.
Architecture and design students at the Universities of Darmstadt and Detmold have been working on solutions for the working world of the future, and their concepts, based in part on products from Bayer MaterialScience, were presented by future_bizz at Orgatec in Cologne. Their creative approaches are based on scenarios that employees will face in the future: Working conditions, performance requirements, and responsibilities of employees.
Future_bizz recently presented creative solutions for tomorrow´s working world. (Source: Bayer MaterialScience)
The students were given fictitious descriptions of typical employees during a typical work day in the future. This allowed students to combine the factual information about the working world of 2030 with emotional aspects.
“Their concepts therefore reflect more accurately the daily work of the protagonists, their culture, and individuality,” said Dr. Lorenz Kramer, innovation manager in the new business unit at Bayer MaterialScience, in a press release.
An example concept is the "AdPack," which is a backpack that works as a mobile office by turning into a chair or lounger. A large, folding touchscreen, that can open over the user's head, is also integrated into the backpack. To manufacture the AdPack, polymer products, including rollable OLED films, could be used.
If privacy is something you need during the workday, you could opt for the Private Device option, which forms a closed tent with wings. This could be made with electroactive, switchable polycarbonate films, and would allow the worker to be completely secluded and have a quiet area to work in.
The "Sky Hangar" is another concept for use as a temporary workspace. The modular office container system is flexible, designed for sustainable assembly and disassembly for many different work situations. Once you use it for one work project and take it down, it can be reconfigured and transported to the next location. Materials recommended for this include polycarbonate for lightweight glazing, and lightweight, rigid PU foam composite systems for temperature insulation.
Some other questions asked were: How will IT devices influence the working environment in the future? How will the trend towards virtualization change offices and work tools? What will the workplace be like for people who primarily work in networks or projects?
What are some of your ideas and solutions to the proposed questions for the working day in 2030? Tell us in the comments section below.
This is a nice exercise in re-designing the workplace. Variations on cubicles.
I would have liked to see what students came up with when really thinking about how the actual work day would change. Not just, the work space.
40 years ago, we thought there would be more leisure time by 2012. What happened was that work became portable. Americans especially work more than ever before with less leisure time. There's no cubicle re-design that could have predicted that.
It depends on where you are located in the world. The growing population with still need goods manufactured cheaply, food grown, services met. In other words, 2030 being only 17 years away might not be much different than now. Countless people slaving in factories in China/India/poorer countries, while the rest of the world works directly or indirectly for the service industry.
As I have worked in offices and locations that seemed not to have evolved past the 1970s, around 50 years later, I don't see much of a change coming.
I do believe that the BYOD, bring your own device, trend in the workplace today will change how much we all are tied to our various jobs. As an engineer, I design and perform test, which I can do anywhere. There have been plenty of times where I did my work remotely, I tacked more work for sure this way. Since higher-ups want to keep tabs on what their employees are doing, the demand for them to be present during work hours will still remain.
For perspective; I know a person who worked for a company that had a large manufacturing side. Over the time I was there, they moved those jobs outside the company (Some inside and outside the USA). Then it was just us engineers. Then those departments were consolidated and partially replaced with overseas engineers (India). This was over the course of a few years. All parties involved, the work place change depended on where you were located.
Good point about portability, NadineJ. If the trend toward portability continues, I wonder what percentage of employees will work at home, and what effect that will have on huge business centers, such as downtown New York City or Chicago.
Nice article, Lauren. I agree with Chuck that work is likely to move more and more into the home. Work from home has environmental advantages as well as time advantages, both of which will probably increase in importance. IT tools will probably move toward touch screens and away from the keyboard. Except for journalists, of course, who will probably stay tied to the keyboard.
20 years ago, my high school careers teacher was still pushing that in the future that the leisure industry would be high dollars. She pushed Hotel Management over Engineering to most students. With the downturn in the economy and reduction of leisure spending, I wonder if she feels a little guilty.
As for the workplace 20 years from now, thing are so mobile now that there is less and less reason for central computing or main offices. There may be a resurgence of the home office that employers would allow designers to work at home while being at work.
Fascinating anticipation of the future work environement. The future likely holds a humorous view of this privacy tent concept.
I believe the future work place will be even more focused on human interactions. Virtual meetings, holographic presentations. All around technology which makes our physical location irrelevant..
Based on current trends, I expect than in 2030, the work day will be 23.5 hours long, and each company will have exactly one engineering employee, who, in addition to design, will also be responsible for prototyping, testing, manufacturing, equipment maintenance, quality assurance, purchasing, sales, marketing, accounting, human resources, and food service.
I also heard all those predictions about more leisure time. Then in the 1980s, as one of the first people I knew with a home office, I heard predictions about everyone working from home. It has not happened in the volumes predicted, no matter how portable our jobs can be. If it had, there'd be a big rush to the suburbs, instead of to the cities.
Comparing my workplace now with 20 years ago, I think the biggest difference is the increase in the number of handicaps that restrict us. 20 years ago I could solder with lead, my PSU's could put out more EMI and no-one noticed, I could say good morning to a female co-worker without being accused of sexual harrasment, and there were less stuffed suits in the EU looking for more substances to ban and tweaking the compliance standards. in 20 years I'll probably have access to more information than I can handle, and I'll still be commenting on Design News in my lesuire time, not my work hours.
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