Micro-tenancies will breed mega-cities

Last year saw the release of the Gensler Design Forecast entitled A veritable compendium of statistical and qualitative insights, the forecast draws on global design findings gathered by the Gensler Research Institute via the firm’s impressive cache of project work. As the world’s largest architecture and design firm (yes, it’s true!), Gensler sees itself as being in a unique position to positively and consciously affect the future of our cities by “taking on the toughest challenges”. The topic of workplace is very much at the forefront of Gensler’s concerns, because “how, when and where we work” is integrally tied to how our cities will look, operate and respond to humans in the future. Gensler’s Neil Christopher draws out the big picture for us with a series of insights designed to localise the globalised forecast. hybrid environments that focus on the human experience. Continuing on from this we see lobby spaces no longer relegated to a ground floor but extended over three-to-four floors. This enable cafés, co-working spaces, restaurants and even bars to be woven into the fabric of building.

This comes back to the idea of curated experiences and multi-modal work that tenants are now expecting. On projects like 555 Collins Street, Melbourne (designed by Gensler and Cox Architecture), for example, it’s really about the experience of the human, the functionality and the reality of building weaving together in an experience that is holistic. And it works for the tenant, so the building owner has longevity and is flexible to the changes of demographics and the surrounding city.