My first Publication Arup_BuildingDesign2020_v2 | Page 10

Co-working spaces such as PARISOMA are
shared office facilities, providing productive,
creative workspace and amenities to
corporations or individuals for a monthly fee.
Case Study: Digital Networks of Licensed Professionals
As more and more companies move to
cloud-based remote file access, portable
hardware and distributed communications,
workers need no longer be tethered to one
office location. Co-working spaces provide an
office environment for a monthly fee, including
workspace, wifi, storage, and discounts on
shared tool platforms. Co-working spaces can
function as informal R&D or incubator labs,
allowing staff to discover and engage with
fresh ideas they might not encounter in an
industry-specific office.
Location / Business: San Francisco, CA.
PARISOMA for commercial use.
Case Study: Co-Working Spaces
Uber is a ridesharing service that connects
registered drivers with passengers in need
of a ride. Drivers are insured and certified by
the organizing network; riders request, track
and pay for rides using a smartphone app,
choosing on the fly between several
service tiers.
Uber (and similar ridesharing firms) stand
to substantively alter the transportation
landscape, with serious implications for
both design and construction of new urban
infrastructure and the development of
urban mobility regulation. The company’s
business model is emblematic of the value
being created in cities by a new crop of
technological innovators enabled by mobile,
digital networks utilizing and generating nearly
limitless data.
Location / Business: San Francisco, CA.
Uber for commercial use.
Networks of Affiliation New Kinds of Partnerships
As the traditional model of “one designer, one firm, one
career” is increasingly replaced by a generation of less
allegiant, more mobile specialists, the near future of
building design is one of increasing ad-hoc project-by-
project collaboration involving teams of highly specialised
consultants. The design firm, rather than serving as a top-
to-bottom clearinghouse for an entire project, assumes the
role of a management hub, linking and facilitating a web of
fluid connections between specialists. Firms must consider
adapting strategies for employee recruitment, development
and investment to accommodate this new, highly mobile and
specialised workforce. Partnerships between businesses, and between academia and
industry, will increasingly define the practice of building
design. Academic-industrial collaboration will continue as a
critical research stream, developing innovative new tools and
processes and refining them into commercial feasibility.
1.3 Talent
As the skill sets relevant to building design continue to
evolve, and as the relationships between designers, firms,
and non-commercial partners become increasingly complex,
the development and retention of talent is of increasing
importance in the practice of design.
Talent recruitment is undergoing seismic shifts, from
changing employee expectations of work-life balance to the
the inception
 of innovative methods such as team-based
hires, which carefully consider the dynamics of a group of
collaborators beyond traditional skill sets. Efforts to improve
the diversity of the design workforce are successful only
when attention is also applied to the retention and professional
New Kinds of Clients
Shifts in market, spatial and environmental contexts will come
to define new types of client. A growing trend of public-private
partnerships in certain regions will cause shifts not only in
design team makeup by also client type. Simultaneously, the
growing popularity and feasibility of crowd-funded projects
will require consideration of contracting and management
strategies for this new client base.
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Building Design 2020
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