Designing evolutionary workspaces

Storyline

The 21st century has seen the most rapid shifts in how we live - what we do, driven by technologies and will continue to steer at a similar pace. From a time when humans were doing most of the work by hand, innovation led to the formation of tools, making our work efficient. The same tools were used to build machines that made work even more effortless for us. Robots are now the next big thing happening where machines could do almost everything; even build themselves. Beyond this, a steady transition has been seen from manual to digital where how we work has changed with these shifts. The humankind’s push to develop more and more in this race to stay ahead, the ways we work has transformed tremendously as well.

A world more connected via digital merging with physical – is now the only norm that is constant.

The challenge particular to this generation will be to manage the transition. But individuals who need to retrain for new careers won’t be the young, but middle-aged professionals.  

While machines evolve at a tremendous speed, it will be humans who will have to keep up by bringing more value to survive. With growing automation, this race to survival will get only tougher. Humans today have to work more hours with the changing trends of the world - this is a precursor yet significant indicator of this phenomenon today. 

Eventually, this takes a toll on the human body to which makes things even worse.

Brief

As the future of work and the role of humans in it look very uncertain, a designer’s part becomes significant in finding new spaces that enable humans to work better. 

‘Breaking Work’ is an annual challenge focussed on finding the finest workspace concepts of the future. The design theme for this year’s challenge was to find how technology and humans can work together in singularity in the times to come. 

Design Questions: 

In a future when most mundane works can be automated, how humans can view this as an opportunity to do more? 

How can technology, instead of fighting against humans for livelihood, can be seen as an enabler to make better use of their times? 

How will humans complement each other’s skill set in a time when collaboration is the only way to thrive? 

How workspaces can be ready for faster company setups and even faster hiring of people? 

In times when corporations want to make their employees work more, how can health and happiness follow in terms of design, with this growing component of work?

Design challenge:

The design challenge was to visualize work in 2050 and create a model workspace design that aimed at enabling working more predicting 2050. 

The jury for the competition consisted of esteemed designers, professionals and academicians from around the world. The Lead Jurors for the competitions were as follows: 

Zetao Chen, Co-Founder, Creative Director, FCHA, China

Raanan Stern, Founder, RUST architects, Israel

"Some of the Best of competition projects are:"

 

Winning Project: Synchronicity

By: Rogar Chanin

Description: An exploration of an efficient future where humans and artificial intelligence work together to create utopia. Synchronicity is an exploration of an efficient future where humans and artificial intelligence work together to create utopia. The resulting prototype design depicts what a building of the future may look like when humans and artificial intelligence work together to create a product that is sustainable, healthy, and adaptable.

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Runner - Up: Straggler

By:Sena Tokmak, Melisa Tunca & Büşra Bal

Description: In the future, there will be stragglers due to the rapid development of technology. The main idea of this project is to create a second chance for the society that the system is trying to remove. This design serves to stragglers to hold on to time by continuing to live their current consciousness. In the future, there will be stragglers due to the rapid development of technology. The main idea of this project is to create a second chance for the society that the system is trying to remove. This design serves to stragglers to hold on to time by continuing to live their current consciousness.

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Organizer Choice : Dynacrowd Laboratories

By: Jordan Micham

Description: This visualization for the integration of human interaction with artificial intelligence creates a blend between a traditional shopping center and manufacturing plant-- but with a twist.  The facility implements a dynamic crowd-sourcing process in which humans test a variety of prototypes while AI uses their reactions to produce more attractive products. My concept is a facility in which products go through innovation, development, and manufacturing all in the same location.  AI generates a product prototype where it is then placed into a showroom where it is interacted with by humans. AI then observes all the ways in which humans react to their products.  This includes heart rate, ocular stimulation, engagement, mood, and vocal feedback.

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Discover the full results here: https://uni.xyz/competitions/breaking-work-singularity/entries

Discover the design brief here: https://uni.xyz/competitions/breaking-work-singularity/info/about

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Discover other design competitions to participate here: https://uni.xyz/competitions