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See the Future@Work

By: Liz ZackWed Dec 19, 2007 at 12:10 AM
This hands-on exhibit provides a glimpse into the work environment of the future.

What's the best way to figure out how we'll be working in the future? Spend some time there. That's the theory behind Future@Work, a hands-on exhibit in the Bank of America Tower in downtown Seattle. The sponsors of the exhibit include an impressive collection of companies with a stake in how people work -- AT&T Wireless, Steelcase, and Barclay Dean, among others. More than 7,000 business-people have toured the exhibit, which provides a glimpse of everything from small advances -- new lighting patterns, modular furniture -- to wireless environments that support off-site collaborative work.

Workplace guru Robert Hunt is one of the driving forces behind Future@Work. What it documents, he argues, are four of the primary themes reshaping the world of work. First is integration -- "of space, people, technology, and process." Second is work as a social phenomenon. Third is the rich interplay between architecture, technology, and the everyday "objects" of office life. And fourth is choice: "How do you create environments that give people choices about how they work, based on what they're doing?"

We've seen the future -- and it's @work!

Contact Robert Hunt by email (bhunt@huntgroup.org).

Topics:

Design, Design in Business, Robert Hunt, Seattle, Barclay Dean, AT&T Inc., Steelcase Inc.

From Issue 30 | November 1999

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