What next for co-working, agility and the CRE model?
PLACE
Process driven workspace is shrinking to sub 15% in some sectors.
Widely reported, over 60% of conventional workspace underperforms.
Commercial letting agents bemoan the lack of grade-A office space. However, the future of work is changing and work will never be the same again.
In the future, work won’t be done in a place. Instead it will be done from anywhere and everywhere. Companies will be smaller, more nimble and more insistent on matching the work to be accomplished with the person who can best perform the work.*
Are we entering a phase of un-building in the commercial office space sector?
PEOPLE
The emerging talent pool expects different outcomes from the activity of work. Income is not the priority – opportunity, contribution and choice are.
Future workplace will be less ‘owned’, becoming selected for suitability by the user using their own disruptive tech tools to book transport, work settings, sustenance and other resources.
POROSITY
Human-worth will create its own currency. We’ll trade in knowledge and shared experiences – story telling. The future of work will not be measured in time or compensated by coin. The current and broadly adopted financial and trade model will degenerate more from evolving business and people collaboration, than outright collapse.
To share and grow we need mindful openness and respect. Where CRE strategies are Customer focused, removing physical barriers, welcoming a wider business community, ultimately interacting beyond a commercial aspect?
Might floor plates be given over to ‘neighborhoods’ where design encourages chance serendipitous interventions?
Should Government invest in or subsidise underperforming, surplus spaces in CRE, even its own stock – libraries, community centres, higher education?
POTENTIAL
Can CRE release space and create co-working venues where the wider business community is exposed to its brand (as with retail banking), where innovation and collaboration are actively sought and valued?
What about mobile or pop-up, liquid space?
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