We have probably seen more changes in workplace trends in the past 5 years than we have seen in the past 25. Emerging technologies and shifts in cultural practice are creating new patterns of work and this translates into new strategies for design. In an age when remote and hybrid working are becoming prevalent, one such trend sees successful large-scale work environments beginning to behave as small cities. Cities are nurseries for innovation: human aggregation, proximity, and friction facilitate pooling talents, sharing knowledge, and spreading ideas.

But how can these environments be replicated within the context of individual buildings? We will address how, through the use of established placemaking strategies, we can leverage technology, sustainability and wellness principles to create vivid experiences that enhance human interaction within the workplace. Further, we will discuss how workplaces can become more vibrant when they are actively linked to their wider social environments and when they celebrate a sense of place.

This trend will be explored through the lens of several projects designed by PLP including: Sky Central – an office environment planned as a fragment of a city, where wellbeing is an engine for creativity 22 Bishopsgate – the first Well certified tower in the UK and a building that operates as a vertical village The Edge Amsterdam – the greenest and smartest building in the world