Flexibility

From our previous posting on mobility, I asserted that “open communication and collaboration is the new norm as teams move and morph around the idea.”  This produces an important development in office design and gives new meaning to the often cliche term of flexibility in the workplace.

When we say “flexibility” in the workplace, we often think of an open floor filled with modular furniture (desks, cabinets, chairs), with some static areas, like pantries, conference rooms, and executive offices.  The modular furniture is suppose to be interchangeable and movable while offering aesthetic uniformity.

If you’ve ever worked at a corporate office, we all know “flexible furniture” is never flexible.  Desk configurations stay the same, and it’s the people and their accumulated things that move.  Assembling a new project team? Move the necessary people to the same corner for a few months.  It’s perennial relocation like refugees because it always sucks to be displaced and separated from the former team and community. 

The Nomad versus The Refugee.

I argue that mobility re-imagines the workplace as a pasture of ideas.  The individual becomes the nomad as he or she moves and congregates around idea to idea.  Space is morphing as organically as the idea.  We will finally challenge true flexibility in the workplace when the new working nomads seek places that encourage seamless cross-pollination of ideas, or find inspirations from incidental intersections between diverse activities.

As architecture searches for the new “creative space,” the new nomads will undoubtedly wonder how mobility and flexibility will change their relationship with the company?  Will personality now emerge into building blocks of a company over brand identity of an organization?

In the next post, we will explore why I feel the individual personality will come to overturn corporate identity and the workplace architecture.  

Alfred Huang is a co-founder and principal architect of Massforma Architecture, specializing in smart design for homes and small businesses.

1 year ago 

Mobility

In my last post, I pointed out that mobility, flexibility, and personality are common features shared by entrepreneural spaces.  Today, I will briefly elaborate on mobility as it contributes the evolution of how we will choose to work and innovate in the  years to come.

It is evident from daily technological debuts that the rapid evolution of media distribution devices will change how we consume and interact with media.  Armed with tablets that connect everything to the Cloud, we are enthusiastically freed from the cubicle and desk.  As we break from our chains, how will we choose to shape our world to exercise our the newfound mobility?

Transitional hubs like airports are where we usually find spaces designed for mobility.  They provide the business road-warriors their pit stop to recharge, reconnect, and reorient.  Mobile technology gave birth to the modern day road-warriors, and is now bringing mobility to mainstream workplace culture (Many will argue that road-warriors aren’t really ”free” - lets save that for another discussion). 

 To the emerging Generation Y workers and entrepreneurs, mobility equates to freedom and symbolizes control.  Mobility inspires independence from predefined boundaries.  However, it also creates new interdependence between workers that stretch beyond boundaries of space and time (anytime, anywhere, 24/7).

The new mobility fragments the working collective and breaks the old top-down feudalistic structure represented by the executive corner offices.  Everything is more flat and organic.  Open communication and collaboration is the new norm as teams move and morph around the idea.

Entrepreneurs are embracing mobility to differentiate how they innovate and create.  Mobility is no longer just a convenience but an inspirational break from the past.  It’s a liberation from the established group-think and a celebration of their individual freedom to think outside of the box. 

Freedom of mobility logically leads us to the second important feature: flexibility

Alfred Huang is a co-founder and principal architect of Massforma Architecture, specializing in smart design for homes and small businesses.

1 year ago  19 notes

Mobility, Community, and Personality

If you haven’t noticed already, technology seems to be lifing everything into the virtual cloud.  Consumers increasingly move online for their shopping needs while new and emering retail startups jostle for internet space over retail storefront space.   Even offices are moving into the cloud.  Improved online communication portals are redefining meetings and extending them beyond the physical boundaries of the conference room. 

So what about architecture?  Is it being left behind by technology?  Will it simply become an empty shell housing what remains as an outdated mode of shopping or working?

The new wave of entrepreneurs are enthusiastic supporters of this trend.  They are already carving out niches of space to accomodate their new culture and style of communication and work.  Collaborative co-working spaces like Grind, We Work or Hive 55 are early examples of space designed for entrepreneurs.

So what do these spaces have in common? I believe there are 3 main features that they aspire to offer entrepreneurs:

  1. Mobility
  2. Community
  3. Personality

In the next few blog posts, I will discuss in more detail how these 3 features are essential to designing architecture for entrepreneurs.

Alfred Huang is a co-founder and principal architect of Massforma Architecture, specializing in smart design for homes and small businesses.

1 year ago  6 notes

The Emerging Growth of Entrepreneur Space

As much of the world economy adjust and emerge from recession, there is much evidence that cities are preparing themselves for a new wave of growth led by technology. Cities like New York is preparing to align itself for the 21st century “Erie Canal moment” by pledging city resources to attract technology incubators and research institutions.

Just as technology is sparking the wave of entreprenurship, I believe this wave will certainly revolutionize how people choose to live, play, and work. We are thinkers and innovators of space, and we should be thinking about the next generation of spaces that enable and inspire the next wave of pioneers.

In the following blogs, I will explore topics on “entrepreneurship architecture” and hopefully discover some insights to emerging trends in our rapidly changing environment.  Of course, I will also communicate via sketches and diagrams (I am an architect after all) and invite comments because I believe design is an iterative process of refinements.

Alfred Huang is a co-founder and principal architect of Massforma Architecture, specializing in smart design for homes and small businesses.  

1 year ago  4 notes

Flexibility

From our previous posting on mobility, I asserted that “open communication and collaboration is the new norm as teams move and morph around the idea.”  This produces an important development in office design and gives new meaning to the often cliche term of flexibility in the workplace.

When we say “flexibility” in the workplace, we often think of an open floor filled with modular furniture (desks, cabinets, chairs), with some static areas, like pantries, conference rooms, and executive offices.  The modular furniture is suppose to be interchangeable and movable while offering aesthetic uniformity.

If you’ve ever worked at a corporate office, we all know “flexible furniture” is never flexible.  Desk configurations stay the same, and it’s the people and their accumulated things that move.  Assembling a new project team? Move the necessary people to the same corner for a few months.  It’s perennial relocation like refugees because it always sucks to be displaced and separated from the former team and community. 

The Nomad versus The Refugee.

I argue that mobility re-imagines the workplace as a pasture of ideas.  The individual becomes the nomad as he or she moves and congregates around idea to idea.  Space is morphing as organically as the idea.  We will finally challenge true flexibility in the workplace when the new working nomads seek places that encourage seamless cross-pollination of ideas, or find inspirations from incidental intersections between diverse activities.

As architecture searches for the new “creative space,” the new nomads will undoubtedly wonder how mobility and flexibility will change their relationship with the company?  Will personality now emerge into building blocks of a company over brand identity of an organization?

In the next post, we will explore why I feel the individual personality will come to overturn corporate identity and the workplace architecture.  

Alfred Huang is a co-founder and principal architect of Massforma Architecture, specializing in smart design for homes and small businesses.

Mobility

In my last post, I pointed out that mobility, flexibility, and personality are common features shared by entrepreneural spaces.  Today, I will briefly elaborate on mobility as it contributes the evolution of how we will choose to work and innovate in the  years to come.

It is evident from daily technological debuts that the rapid evolution of media distribution devices will change how we consume and interact with media.  Armed with tablets that connect everything to the Cloud, we are enthusiastically freed from the cubicle and desk.  As we break from our chains, how will we choose to shape our world to exercise our the newfound mobility?

Transitional hubs like airports are where we usually find spaces designed for mobility.  They provide the business road-warriors their pit stop to recharge, reconnect, and reorient.  Mobile technology gave birth to the modern day road-warriors, and is now bringing mobility to mainstream workplace culture (Many will argue that road-warriors aren’t really ”free” - lets save that for another discussion). 

 To the emerging Generation Y workers and entrepreneurs, mobility equates to freedom and symbolizes control.  Mobility inspires independence from predefined boundaries.  However, it also creates new interdependence between workers that stretch beyond boundaries of space and time (anytime, anywhere, 24/7).

The new mobility fragments the working collective and breaks the old top-down feudalistic structure represented by the executive corner offices.  Everything is more flat and organic.  Open communication and collaboration is the new norm as teams move and morph around the idea.

Entrepreneurs are embracing mobility to differentiate how they innovate and create.  Mobility is no longer just a convenience but an inspirational break from the past.  It’s a liberation from the established group-think and a celebration of their individual freedom to think outside of the box. 

Freedom of mobility logically leads us to the second important feature: flexibility

Alfred Huang is a co-founder and principal architect of Massforma Architecture, specializing in smart design for homes and small businesses.

Mobility, Community, and Personality

If you haven’t noticed already, technology seems to be lifing everything into the virtual cloud.  Consumers increasingly move online for their shopping needs while new and emering retail startups jostle for internet space over retail storefront space.   Even offices are moving into the cloud.  Improved online communication portals are redefining meetings and extending them beyond the physical boundaries of the conference room. 

So what about architecture?  Is it being left behind by technology?  Will it simply become an empty shell housing what remains as an outdated mode of shopping or working?

The new wave of entrepreneurs are enthusiastic supporters of this trend.  They are already carving out niches of space to accomodate their new culture and style of communication and work.  Collaborative co-working spaces like Grind, We Work or Hive 55 are early examples of space designed for entrepreneurs.

So what do these spaces have in common? I believe there are 3 main features that they aspire to offer entrepreneurs:

  1. Mobility
  2. Community
  3. Personality

In the next few blog posts, I will discuss in more detail how these 3 features are essential to designing architecture for entrepreneurs.

Alfred Huang is a co-founder and principal architect of Massforma Architecture, specializing in smart design for homes and small businesses.

The Emerging Growth of Entrepreneur Space

As much of the world economy adjust and emerge from recession, there is much evidence that cities are preparing themselves for a new wave of growth led by technology. Cities like New York is preparing to align itself for the 21st century “Erie Canal moment” by pledging city resources to attract technology incubators and research institutions.

Just as technology is sparking the wave of entreprenurship, I believe this wave will certainly revolutionize how people choose to live, play, and work. We are thinkers and innovators of space, and we should be thinking about the next generation of spaces that enable and inspire the next wave of pioneers.

In the following blogs, I will explore topics on “entrepreneurship architecture” and hopefully discover some insights to emerging trends in our rapidly changing environment.  Of course, I will also communicate via sketches and diagrams (I am an architect after all) and invite comments because I believe design is an iterative process of refinements.

Alfred Huang is a co-founder and principal architect of Massforma Architecture, specializing in smart design for homes and small businesses.  

Flexibility
Mobility
Mobility, Community, and Personality
The Emerging Growth of Entrepreneur Space

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