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The future office

The future office

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What will the perfect working space and future office look like? We all know how it feels to have tons of work to do, but no focus or energy to get it done. In a situation like that, a nice and quiet office can be a great way to get into a productive working mood. An office symbolizes something that we can step out of, once we’ve finished our work. It allows us to work when we have to work, and relax when we’re off. Through time, the idea of what an office looks like has changed a lot. Today, most people don’t even have one. Some people consider every comfortable chair or space as a proper office. Just look at all the people who gets their work done at Starbucks and other hip cafés. Many people work from home, which allows them to stay in bed all day!

In the article “Office Space Timeline: Past, Present and Future” we take a look back at some of the previous decades’ office trends. Futurist Liselotte Lyngsø’s gives her thoughts on what the future office is going to look like. Together with another futurist, Yesim Kunter, Liselotte points out future office-trends involving culture-, design- and attire.

Offices through the decades 

A timeline from the past to the future illustrates office culture-, design- and attire. Is also states the amount of women in the workforce!

The office of the future 

What will an office be like in 2030 & what will it look like in the 2100s century?

2030s: Influence of technology 

The cultural aspect of the 2030-office evolves around how we’re going to manage people working from home, being digital nomads, while still needing a space to meet up in real life. The design focusses on technology, sustainability and wellness. Offices will be designed based on the need of every single individual and not “one size fit all”.

How will working hours be distributed and how will women be considered?

“It is more likely that a woman is raised valuing empathy. While it’s difficult to feel empathetic towards a workforce of 200, it’s much easier for a workforce of 20. The progressive decentralisation of work will provide women with more opportunities to become leaders.”

-Liselotte Lyngsø

2100s: From high-tech to high-touch 

The fact that we’re already becoming digital nomads today and that the level of actual human interaction is becoming smaller and smaller will result in a gigantic need of intimacy later on.

Read the article and discover how this will have an influence on different aspects of the 2100-office.

Read the article on this link to the BBC radio program.

Want to read more about what the future office will look like? Listen to “The future of X #1: the workplace”. A podcast with Liselotte Lyngso.

The road to driverless cars

The road to driverless cars

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How do we prepare for a future with driverless cars? Panel discussion on June 23. 2017 with reporter Ian Telfer.

Futurist Liselotte Lyngsø attended a panel discussion broadcasted on Radio New Zealand RNZ where the main focus was what a world with driverless cars is going to look like.

How will companies and countries prepare for the future, which is just around the corner? Driverless cars will be a significant changing factor for our view on technology. We have to be ready for achieving its full potential, by figuring out every detail that comes with it.

What opportunities will it bring us, and how will our society greet it? Can we redesign the vehicles in order to give the consumer the same feeling of control as if they were driving the car themselves? How will it affect people, that they won’t be able to, or won’t have to drive the car themselves?

Driverless cars creates the future for co-driving

Liselotte addresses co-driving as a possible scenario that is worth fighting for. Spontaneous co-driving in cars will allow os to expand our social lives. Suddenly, we’ll be able to make use of the time that we would normally use on driving alone from A to B. Driverless cars will allow us to catch up with friends, finish our last work meeting or connect with our families whilst being driven to our destinations. It will also create opportunity to socialize and network with a used-to-be stranger from our neighborhood.

“They don’t get road rage. They’re uniform and measured in their moral response. Maybe they’ll be better than we are.”

-Associate Professor, James Maclaurin.

Futurist Liselotte Lyngsø speaks about how we are going to make driving an online marketplace, like we’ve done with Airbnb. People will collect cars as a hobby. The public interest in nice designs, usability and the interest for the sexiness of the cars will continue to rise. People will expect to rent a car according to situation-based personal needs. Private car-ownership might be essential in order to ensure a continued flowering diversity within mobility.

Who will be in control of mobility?

The urgent and most important question to solve, is the question of who will be in control of mobility. As the driverless cars will be connected to the internet of things IOT – it could be at the national level, at the car manufactoring level or at the personal level. Listen to the broadcast and find out why we should integrate the driverless cars, and make up systems so that people will share and make it possible to reduce the numbers of cars on the road and eliminate the need for most of our current public transportation. You will also hear about how  the driver-less future might be a target for new ways of hacking and terrorism that needs to be dealt with.

Listen to the panel discussion here, and imagine the road to driverless cars with motoring journalist David Thomson, Ass. Professor James Maclaurin, CEO of the Ministry of Transport Andrew Jackson and  Futurist, Liselotte Lyngsø. On this link you can also read about the speakers on the panel.