Responsive spaces: The London Festival of Architecture explores the future of the modern workspace

An office space next to trees
TREExOFFICE, an unlikely workspace in the canopy of a tree in Hoxton Square, is an attempt - in part - to rethink parks
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This year's London Festival of Architecture focuses on the increasing use of unconventional workspaces across the capital. As the nature of work continues to change, so too does the working environment. Remote working has freed employees up from their workstations; at the same time, myriad start-ups and sole-traders have taken space in shared offices, which are springing up across cities worldwide.

The London-based architectural practice Gensler is exploring this phenomenon in its debate 'Why Keep Work in the Office When We Can Have the City?' The panellists will grapple with issues such as: How will office environments change to counter or embrace this trend? What will future 'Third Spaces' become? And how can these spaces respond in order to better support the industry clusters that they are embedded in?'

RIBA's event, 'The Changing Face of Workspace', pushes this theme further still, questioning whether these changes and the way we work have a greater impact on us than we might expect.

But it's not all co-working and coffee shops. Under the Archiboo banner, Carlo Ratti of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ponders the repercussions for how whole cities are designed in his talk 'The Future of Work: the New Ideas That Will Kill the Office'.

Meanwhile, as digital technology allows work to become ever-more invasive, the effect this is having on our sleep and well-being is discussed at 'Hypnos: The Architecture of Sleep'. This panel debate, which accompanies Sto Werkstatt's exhibition on sleep, asks: 'What does it say about a company that provides a bed, on the proviso that you are available 24/7?' Sleep neuroscientist Professor Jim Horne will be on the panel hoping to throw light on the subject.

This year's event illustrates many different futures for our working lives – but one thing participants do agree on is that almost continual change is now a given.

An office space next to trees

Up to eight people can book a spot in the temporary co-working space and use the tree's WiFi

(Image credit: press)

An office space next to trees

It's a collaboration between Australian American artist Natalie Jeremijenko, London-based artists Shuster + Moseley, architects Tate Harmer and briefing architects Gensler

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An office space next to trees

TREExOFFICE will be available to book for the entire month of June

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messages hung up by clips

In a separate event, Professor Mark Brearley's venture Cass Cities throws light on London's 'alternative' economic life, focusing on smaller manufacturing businesses

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messages on boards stood up

Where London Works Exhibition by Cass Cities maps the capital's workshops, shoemakers and bakers

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messages in a row

The exhibition of Cass's fascinating findings is on display at Building BloQs, a new open-access workspace for independent designers working in wood, metal, concrete, plastic and paint

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a woman looking at something on the wall

Open from the 13th to the 20th June, this show celebrates London's 'vast economic life'

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a room with plants in a table and objects on a table

Organic Grid + - Vision of the Workplace of the Future is one more exhibition that opens this week, this time in collaboration with Domus Tiles

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plants on some tables

In this show, designers Sean Cassidy and Joe Wilson have imagined what our working lives could be like in 2050

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people harvesting their lunch in office

The duo have brought together technology and nature, and present - among other ideas - a world in which staff harvest their lunch

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a what if image of a office on the side of a building

The show explores conceptual blueprints related to the evolution of our working environment and asks the question 'what if?'

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A busy centre surrounded by offices and some greenery in the middle

A healthy, functioning city needs to balance limited land with the need for jobs and infrastructure. Three such projects in Eindhoven, London and New York are presented in the LFA's keynote debate, The Working City: Eindhoven, London, New York, followed by panel discussion to thrash out this pressing issue.

(Image credit: press)
Clare Dowdy

Clare Dowdy is a London-based freelance design and architecture journalist who has written for titles including Wallpaper*, BBC, Monocle and the Financial Times. She’s the author of ‘Made In London: From Workshops to Factories’ and co-author of ‘Made in Ibiza: A Journey into the Creative Heart of the White Island’.

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