Does anyone else feel like agile is kind of old news now? We get it, that’s a little controversial! Particularly seeing as it’s become the paradigm upon which modern workplace design is based. But in a world where change is the only constant, we’re pretty sure that ‘agile working’ – at least as we know it – is on a limited shelf life. So we’re moving forward, looking at where the future of workplace design is heading and courageously calling the shots on a new commercial revolution.

In this edition of Indesign: the ‘Work, Live, Play’ issue, we cut the buzzwords and vague terminology to uncover what our industry is facing in the world of workplace design. We ask, if agile has become the norm, then what will the new, radical concept look like?

Here, we take a critical look at current models of workplace wellbeing: is it all a load of rubbish, or could we just be using too narrow a definition in addressing it? Using some of the region’s most progressive commercial projects, we uncover how and why we are redefining the term to embrace emotional and spiritual wellbeing as a means for designing engaging and positive commercial environments.

As part of our up-to-the-minute survey on agile working, we take you behind the scenes of Orgatec 2016 to critically review the latest workplace fittings, fixtures, furnishing, big ideas – and even the relevance of the event itself! We also address the hot topic of commercial kitsch versus experimentation and how to navigate between what’s progressive and what’s naff. We’ve discovered that with the surge of popularity in material selection in contemporary workplace design, pairing our clients’ new-found appreciation for materiality with the big bad data movement could well hold the answer to that all-important question, ‘What is the future of the workplace?’ (Flip to page 172 to see what we’re getting at!)

In these many pages, we critically review the role of architects and designers in shaping the ever-evolving work, live, play dynamic, and the people, products and projects that are driving them. Enjoy the issue!

Sophia Watson & Alice Blackwood | Indesign Co-Editors