4.181 Architectural Design Workshop - Rethinking Office Development, Spring 2003

Abstract

This is an interdisciplinary workshop, not a design workshop in the ordinary sense. It is certainly intended for graduate students in architecture but also for students in the Center for Real Estate (CRE), and for students in other related disciplines, who are interested in getting the most out of the design process but are not themselves necessarily designers. The main qualification for taking part in the Workshop is an interest in, and an urgent desire to do something about, specifying the type, quality, image and performance of the new wave of speculative office buildings that will be needed in the next cycle of economic recovery. The questions the workshop will address are: What has and has not changed over the last three decades in the context of office development in the US? What are the causes of the apparent current lack of interest in product development and renewal in the office market in the US? What likely changes, e.g. in tenant and user demand, in business culture, in locational choice, in financial and funding practice, in leasing arrangements, in technology, in constructional technique, could justify and stimulate innovation? What commercial incentives would it take for developers to take advantage of such changes? What innovations in new building features, products and services for office development would be likely to result, especially if emerging user demand were to be taken seriously by suppliers?