Plug n’ Play

The desire behind the selection of this project started through our experiences in conventional workspaces during our day-to-day routine, and after reading the brief of the competition it was evident that we could approach this project in a futuristic way of different solutions to the current workspace issues, that exist today and that will exist in the future as well. The project site is located in a tech area in Munich, Germany where collaboration workspaces are thriving and needed as well. Being surrounded with many other technology companies, we wanted to make sure that our project could benefit and contribute to them, even after 100 years in the future.

Firstly, we started thinking about the main concept for our project by sketching out our ideas for what future holds after 100 years. With that in mind, and after a lot of brainstorming, we came to the conclusion that the conventional office spaces of today lack flexibility. With poor space utilisation, workspaces are rarely reassembled into something bigger or more private easily at all, which develops even more problems in the office. In addition, virtual meetings and working remotely has entered everyday life today too, which by it self eliminates the issues of conventional office design, but our goal was to find something in between the two to form our futuristic version of a workspace. The concept of the project comes from the side of the needs of the user more so rather than the companies themselves, by having individual workspace pods that can be moved around the building on the users demand in order to connect with other pods to form bigger spaces. Meetings between 2 to even 30 people can be possible with this concept because there are no spatial restrictions from the architecture of the building. With the elevation of the site in mind, which has 6 meters of height difference from one side to the other we decided to use a bare grid as a baseline, in between a 3x3 opening, that will facilitate these dedicated workspaces. With these two main parts of the project, the grid and the pods, we can achieve a futuristic collaboration workspace that eliminates the issues of the offices of today and solves them in an innovative way promoting both private space and collaboration as well, and its called Plug n’ Play.

The development of the project came in many different ways, by trying to identify how this idea can be viable. According to the brief we had to incorporate many different rooms and activities in the building, but the main goal was to have them be formed by the users and the connection of the pods. In order to make this work we decided to have parts of the building as permanent blocks for dedicated activities and split the rest to be done be the pods coming together. With the building constantly changing shape throughout time, users will be experiencing a different journey through it, removing the stale feeling of conventional office spaces. After some more sketching and modelling for our pod ideas, the connection of the pods to one another and the connection of them to the grid had to be resolved too. The pods would move on the grid throughout the building like a train on rails to reach the desired pod the user wants to connect with moving both horizontally and vertically. For the case of the connection between pods, ideas like opening walls and rolling walls were discussed, but it would take too much space from the final form of the rooms after them coming together, so we decided to make the walls of the pods to be foldable after their connection. With the project working only as a workspace for people we started thinking of some ideas about what else we could incorporate in the program. Having in mind the different technology companies around the project and the elevation of the site, we added a factory in the basement of the building that can be used for innovative technologies and provide a space of testing and production as well. The ‘’factory’’ aspect of our building provides a different approach to what an office workspace is and what it can do, especially if all the new technologies that come from it our used not only to constantly improve the building itself, but as a manufacturing machine for the world. Furthermore, office desks, chairs and windows will be formed in a way where it fits the mentality of these moving pods, of staying away from the boring normality of the office space in order to improve productivity and creativity in the workspace. As an example, the windows of the building will be also used to provide solar energy on the exterior with invisible solar gain micro panels that will be transparent, and they will be used as screens and transparent whiteboards from the interior. After setting up the hundreds of pods that will be on the building and the permanent floors of the building as well, we realised that we need to emphasise the whole structure, concept of the pods and the grid by opening up parts of the floors where natural light can come in certain parts of the building all the way down to the ground floor. Seeing how the whole building works by just standing under all these pods moving on the grid, will act as motivation to the people coming to work instead of the feeling of dread that most office workers have today.

In closing, the activities provided from the pods can be varying from exhibition events for hundreds of people to a simple meeting for two people in order to gather ideas for work. The project can evolve in many different ways depending on what the needs of the occasion are, without impacting the individual working in his/her private space. Plug n’ play is working as an innovative co-working hub designed to overcome current and future problems and needs in the workspace with a lot of space to grow for even the next 1000 years. With its multiple connection variations and constant development from the ‘’factory’’ it can develop, evolve and learn like artificial intelligence making in it able to continue working through the years both as a system and as an ever-changing building in Munich.