How can you design an office to please everyone? Italian architect and MIT Senseable City Lab director Carlo Ratti recently took on this challenge when he was asked to renovate the headquarters of the Agnelli Foundation, a social-science think tank based in Turin. "The project's goals were to save energy and create a unique interface between people and the building," Ratti explains. His solution: combine internet-of-things technology and architectural innovation to allow each worker to tailor the space to their own needs, while also encouraging interaction with colleagues. Here are the key principles behind his Office 3.0 idea.
Workers can personalise their temperature and lighting preferences via an app. Sensors around the office "create a kind of thermal bubble, which follows each individual, allowing better comfort and a reduction of energy waste", Ratti says.
One area of the building is left unassigned: Ratti filled the space over a nine-metre-high hall with a giant tensile structure. "It is for people to jump through, walk through or rest - to nurture moments of creative relaxation," he says.
Open-plan offices can be distracting, so Ratti fitted the building with movable elements - glass walls, sound-absorbing curtains, foldable wooden partitions - that can be used to reshape and repurpose the space on demand by workers.
The app's location-tracking system helps workers navigate the building. If users need a desk or meeting room, for example, the app will direct them to the closest available space. "It's like Foursquare, but for inside buildings," Ratti says.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
