Connected distribution : planning Boston for the future worker

Abstract

As mobile technology continues to decentralize the workplace and employees are become liberated from their desks, the role of the office building within its urban context entered a state of flux. Accelerated by the burgeoning sharing economy and increased telecommuting, cities must start to incorporate, and even prioritize, productive workplace geographies over large swaths of land. This thesis sets out to take-on that challenge, and re-imagines the role of the office building within the city by adapting the emerging model of co-working as an urban device. On a regional scale this proposal looks at under-utilized areas within Boston that could be developed with distributed work in mind. On a neighborhood scale, the project speculates on how productive overlaps between a neighborhood co-working space and public amenities such as transportation systems and parks could create a new urban typology that enhances the life of its citizens.