🏙️ The crazy new 3D city! | Ep9 OoO

🌱 Video: An eco-friendly walkable city design

🦗 CoStar News: Empty Los Angeles offices 

🌇 Time Magazine: The end of the office is her

Hey! Welcome Back -

It’s episode 9 of Out of Office, glad to have you with us. 

Today I explore a new city design that was created to solve unsustainable transportation issues. Then, I look at office block developments and why they’re not finding new tenants. Is remote work the culprit?

Stay tuned as we get to the bottom of how remote life is reshaping our working world this week. 

Let’s get moving -

Video: Walk the Line

The top story this week is the Saudi Arabian city that is set to be built using the latest modern research and technology.

According to the creators at Neom, it’s time to rethink what we know about how people live, work and play. 

They say the city is going to be 170 kilometers long, taller than the Empire State building and will house about 9 million people. 

Dubbed ‘The Line’ because of its shape, this 3 dimensional city was conceived as a walkers paradise. The designers say you can get anywhere on foot within 20 minutes, no matter where you are inside.

🚗 And no cars means zero car emissions.

Check out the full promo video for the city here. 

I suggest you watch it, then linger over the comments. They’re hilarious!

I can’t say for sure whether this is a snapshot of our dystopian future, or a smart publicity stunt that will never be brought to life.

Either way, it’s pretty cool. 

What I can say is that it’s interesting how people don’t do new cities anymore. Things would be so different if we had to design them from scratch, on a foundation of the latest modern knowledge.

CoStar News: A Fine Line

Another fun story hitting the headlines recently, involves less of an architectural wonder and more of an architectural blunder - this time in Los Angeles, California. 

The Wrapper Building as they are calling it, stands as a rebuttal to remote work - and has everyone wondering why.

🏗️ Who is building office blocks in 2022?

The answer is architect Eric Owen Moss, who hopes the space makes a strong argument for returning to the office cubicle. 

Jack Witthaus writes - 

"Wherever you look, you see the city, you see the green, you see the sky…it argues for working in an environment that's so connected to the world."

The 16 story block will be ready for occupancy later this year. As it stands - two months away - no-one has applied for tenancy there. 

That's 180,000 square feet of emptiness. Maybe vistas aren’t what people really want in a workspace?

There’s not such a fine line between the new normal at home, and the same old workplace. Building more of what no-one wants anymore is either bold, or a very out of touch move.

Time Magazine: The End of The Office

As you’ve seen there are futuristic cities that solve people’s problems going up, and there are old fashioned office buildings nobody wants going up.

There are lessons to be learned here and questions to be asked! 

Like how exactly are cities going to evolve in the future? 

🏢 Drawing a Line in the Sand: Old Vs New

One CEO who is speaking out is Brian Chesky, from Airbnb. Originally a designer, this perfectly positions Chesky as someone with unique insights.

Belinda Luscombe quotes him here -

“I think that the office as we know it, is over. It’s kind of like an anachronistic form. It’s from a pre-digital age. If the office didn’t exist, I like to ask, would we invent it?”

So what happens now?

• The future is a true hybrid model but not the 3 day model of today
• The 3 day hybrid model is unsustainable
• All workplaces will be flexible about location
• Gatherings will be intentional, for a week or two at a time

Even then, there are risks.

“Technology is like gravity. It wants to find the fastest point between point A and point B. If we’re not careful in the name of efficiency, we will try to remove all human connection.”

Chesky believes that being intentional is key. 

Progress doesn’t have to lead to a bleak future with poor connections. 

It’s possible to design meaningful ways for people to come together and experience connection and community. 

We just don’t know what it looks like yet. There is a lot to iron out and a lot of solutions still to be found. 

Brian talked about one idea I loved -

🏘️ Neighborhood Working Spaces: Along These Lines

Imagine if there were neighborhood working spaces. 

Not private subscription models - something like a pay per use model.

If everyone works remotely in the future, some of those people will prefer to go to work in a traditional sense, close to home. You don’t have to have a home office - you can work at a neighborhood work space.

Get all the water cooler chats you like there, with your actual neighbors. You would get to know your community despite working for different companies. 

You’ll see these people every day, and will know their kid’s names. 

These professional locations will pop up in all neighborhoods. They’ll be great for socializing, getting work done away from home, and leaving the house with almost no commute. 

This isn’t bleak or connectionless at all - it’s just new.

Saudi Arabia is onto something here, it just requires a fresh line of thinking 🙂

That’s all for this week - and remember the future of work is Out of Office. 

Andrew

This Week’s Shareable

• Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb says, “Technology is like gravity. It wants to find the fastest point between point A and point B. If we’re not careful in the name of efficiency, we will try to remove all human connection.” We explore new city designs and empty office blocks on OOO this week.