14th May 2025
Every month, different voices from the practice share their ideas about the future of the built environment. Covering a range of typologies – from healthcare to stadiums and airports – we are building a picture of tomorrow.
This month, we asked Kate Murphy, Alessandro Ranaldi, Grant Kanik, and Russell Hales about the workplace of the future, which actively improves employees’ health, aligns with values of social responsibility and sustainability, and provides a canvas for creativity.
Kate Murphy
“Fundamentally, the workplace of the future has got to be better than home. To attract and retain the best talent in a post-covid world, organisations need to offer working environments that excel when it comes to wellbeing. There must be great places to meet and socialise – as well as those for more serendipitous interactions – and the building itself should actively improve the health of the people working within it.
The two London offices I worked on in succession embody this approach. Fresh air, natural light, and spaces to connect are the cornerstones of both projects. Every decision, from the lighting design to the choice of materials, was underpinned by an ambition to create the healthiest working environments that provide psychological and physiological benefits. To achieve this, we spoke to as many employees as possible, at every level, to understand their needs and how we might address them. We also incorporated intelligent building management systems and worked closely with contractors, from the earliest stages, which helped us to innovate and push boundaries in a low-risk way.
Although it’s something we have always intrinsically known, I think factors such as the pandemic and the rise of wearable technologies have made us all more acutely aware of the relationship between our immediate surroundings and our bodies. Looking further ahead, I’m interested in how even more design decisions will be driven by scientific data to create highly responsive workplaces that positively transform people’s lives.”
Kate is a senior partner with over 30 years of experience on a variety of project types and scales ranging from cultural buildings to high rise towers and workplaces. Her speciality is the regeneration of historic buildings to give them a sustainable future. Kate worked on Bloomberg’s European headquarters, which was awarded the Stirling Prize in 2018, and a major office retrofit project in Battersea, southwest London.
Alessandro Ranaldi and Grant Kanik
“The foundation of a great workplace is its ability to drive productivity. Productivity has changed radically and so the workplace is changing as well. Two of the greatest impacts on the workplace have been the rise of distributed and asynchronous working – trends fuelled by technology and accelerated by the pandemic. No longer do we need to be in the same place at the same time to be working on the same undertaking. We can collaborate on projects in different countries and in different time zones.
This ability to conduct many types of work remotely has had an enormous impact on the physical workplace. It must refocus on those activities that are not effective remotely. When all employees were working from home, companies realised how difficult it is to sustain a culture without a workplace. The built environment provides things that are fundamental to business, such as team building, organic collaborating, mentorship, innovation, trust and loyalty.
Recent studies have shown that Gen Z’s expectations for the workplace are largely driven by meaning. It is evident that the younger generation wants to work for companies that reflect their own values of social responsibility and sustainability. As such, the design of physical workspaces must align with these values and communicate them back to employees. These buildings have low carbon footprints and different operational energy requirements, as well as healthy, welcoming, and thoughtful spaces that offer choice and support inclusion and diversity.
As the landscape of work continues to evolve, we are developing an adaptive reuse system that assesses the future flexibility of our buildings. We asses myriad factors – reviewing potential future uses from planning, legal, and financial perspectives, while monitoring shifts in the local market. Scenario-modelling these eventualities helps us design buildings with parameters that will simplify future change-of-use.”
Alessandro and Grant lead Foster + Partners’ Workplace Consultancy team. They work with the practice’s clients to help them create workplaces that enhance experience, engagement and business performance.
Russell Hales
“Going way back, one of the first projects I worked on at Foster + Partners was the McLaren Technology Centre, which we designed to reflect the company's design and engineering expertise. One of the defining moves was connecting the Technology Centre to their Production Centre via a subterranean walkway – allowing for cross-pollination between the design studios, laboratories, and car assembly line across the two sites.
Almost three decades later, our work with OXMAN Studio in New York continues to build on this highly collaborative approach between disciplines. Neri [Oxman]’s team is made up of exceptionally talented scientists and designers, who are working on everything from microbiology to large-scale architectural projects. Given the varied and ever-evolving nature of their work, we needed to provide total flexibility. The workspace that we designed with them allows for infinite configurations and ways to collaborate – mirroring the studio’s organisational logic and interdisciplinary ethos.
Seamless crossovers between the prototyping spaces, growth chambers, the architectural studio, and wet labs are a catalyst for innovation – and all lab furniture is mobile with ‘supercharger totems’ that allow the team to work anywhere within the space. Together, we also honed the studio’s aesthetic, with a palette of natural materials that instil a sense of clarity and calm.
Successful workplace design must provide a canvas for creativity to flourish and build in flexibility for future scenarios that are yet to be imagined.”
Russell is a senior partner who joined the practice in 1996. He has been involved in a number of major projects including the Comcast Technology Center and the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia. He is currently working on The Round, a landmark office and residential project in Blackfriars, and the Old Trafford Stadium District, a world-class football destination and home for Manchester United fans, amongst other projects.
