Archinect - News

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh made a $350 million bet on downtown Las Vegas – five years later, the results are murky

2016-08-12T18:24:00-04:00

Critics point to a less-than-robust tech scene, layoffs and shuttered businesses as major stumbling blocks, while others applaud the community's transformation. [...] "The other thing that we would have done differently, knowing what we know now, is really made our goals much more explicit," Hsieh said. For example, he would have put "collisions" — serendipitous encounters between individuals who can drive innovation — ahead of co-learning, connectedness and even return on investment.

Related on Archinect:

After disrupting the cubicle, are we really any better off?

2016-03-24T12:57:00-04:00

the ‘‘disruptive’’ thinking that insists a workplace ought to care not just for your average needs (supplies, potable coffee, a microwave) but for your deepest psychological ones as well has its insidious side. If the new workplace technology makes it impossible to leave work at work, the ‘‘ethonomic’’ thinking behind new workplace design is intended to make it increasingly difficult to separate our work lives from everything else.

More on the humanities of office design:

Archinect's Lexicon: "Serendipity Machine"

2014-12-12T12:43:00-05:00

serendipity machine, noun: a space (often workplace) that has been designed to maximize chance encounters towards beneficial, ideally innovative, results. This definition is Archinect's own wording, culled from a variety of "serendipity" citations in design briefs – but most notably, from Sebastian Olma's book, The Serendipity Machine (2013).

Self-described "consultant on all things to do with the creative economy", Olma is likely to be the originator of the term. He describes the "serendipity machine" as it pertains to the workplace in his book:

The importance of unexpected conversations and knowledge exchange in innovation has been noted in the management literature for many years. What is new is actually building a business – a machine – that systematically facilitates serendipity. This book presents a disruptive business model that allows you to do exactly that. It is based on a study of Seats2meet.com, the Dutch network of physical coworking, office and meeting spaces. By reinven...

From Apple to Amazon: The New Monuments to Digital Domination

2013-12-02T13:32:00-05:00

The simple logic: Individuals who collaborate are creative. Consequently, all boundaries must disappear, including floors and walls. Private offices no longer exist, not even for top management. The open creative playground is the prevailing fundamental design of the digital economy. Those who don't already have it, have to create it. Stragglers like Microsoft, Yahoo and SAP are gutting their buildings and eliminating many offices.

Read more about workplace design in the knowledge economy in Archinect's latest Aftershock feature, "Serendipity Machines" and the Future of Workplace Design.