“There have never before been so many ways to organize office work.”
Due to demographic changes, we are moving towards a stronger labour market that requires more life-phase-oriented working models, combined with the desire for more time and location flexibility. These include hybrid working methods, increasingly supported by digital tools. Their use will be accepted and demanded by an increasingly digitalised society. In his presentation, Bernd Fels covered a wide range of topics, from the nature of New Work to new workspaces and urban planning.
The more we can do at home in our daily lives – shopping, eating (food cooked by others) and working – the more important a shared, physical place becomes. This changes the office. Half the size’ can suddenly mean ‘twice as attractive’. But it is not only spaces and workstations that are changing. Supported by digitisation and artificial intelligence, process work is becoming project work, and project work is turning into pioneering work. As Joseph Beuys said, ‘We have to invent the future we want’. What this might look like in terms of interconnecting work, community and private spaces, and why we should think more in terms of combining workplace, urban and regional planning, was the focus of the third part of the thought journey into a new work culture.
In his presentation, Bernd Fels drew on 20 years of professional experience and project examples in the field of new working environments.
Photo: © Bernd Fels
