See the Future@Work

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).