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bine the benefits of working from home with their individual realities of life. The future of the office
is therefore not an “either/or” scenario but an intelligent “as well as” approach. Commuting to and
working at the office must provide added value – in the form of social interaction, inspiring work
environments and a setting that fosters both creativity and productivity in equal measure. This is
where the concept of “Office Experience” comes into play – an approach drawing on models such
as “Employee Experience” in human resource management or “Customer Journey” in retail. Archi- Abbildung: Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
tecture must create targeted touchpoints that make working in the office more attractive. These
include open coffee kitchens with bar counters as social meeting points, interface zones at inter-
sections for spontaneous encounters, flexible niches for meetings and individual retreats, lounges
and “silent areas” for focused work, as well as green outdoor spaces for informal conversations and Die Visualisierung zeigt einen Ausschnitt der Geschossmöblierung, die stärker auf eine
active breaks. These design elements create a dynamic spatial landscape that is not only efficient zugewandte Kommunikation und Kollaboration abzielt. • The visualisation presents a section
but, above all, tangible. Additionally, there is a growing emphasis on hybrid working models that of the floor’s furnishings, designed to better foster engaged communication and collaboration.
combine both physical and digital elements. Smart office technologies can help allocate work-
spaces flexibly, optimise space utilisation and accommodate individual needs in real time. These
include AI-supported booking systems for workstations and meeting rooms, personalised lighting Der Beginn einer neuen Ratio: Je mehr quantitativ messbar ist, umso mehr lässt sich
and climate controls, as well as virtual and augmented reality applications that enable new forms qualitativ im Ganzen verbessern – Die Priorisierung liegt bei uns. • The more can be
of collaboration. With AI in architecture, we have two options to choose from: to continue faster measured quantitatively, the more can be improved in terms of overall quality.
along the same path or to fundamentally improve the process. AI-powered planning tools such as
“Spacio” can generate 3D models and real-time analyses from sketches, but they tend to increase
uniformity if they only optimise according to efficiency parameters.

Artificial intelligence as a driver of adaptive architecture

The challenge is to use AI not merely as an acceleration tool but to apply it as a targeted instru- Abbildung: Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
ment for developing user-centric office concepts. A prominent example of this is provided by
the once visionary “Parametric Design”, which was introduced in 2008 by Patrik Schumacher
– thought leader of Parametricism and partner at Zaha Hadid Architects – at the Venice Biennale.
It has long since evolved into a practical control tool. Today, it is used not only to generate orga-
nic forms but also to analyse and optimise functional processes, circulation patterns and usage
dynamics. Ulrich Blum, Senior Associate at Zaha Hadid Architects – Co-Head of ZHA‘s Analytics & Wie verändern sich die Distanzen zwischen den Arbeitsplätzen, wenn sich das Arrangement
Insights Team and Professor of Digital Design at the Münster School of Architecture – explains that der Möblierung verändert? • How do the distances between workstations change when the
new technologies, combined with the experimental spirit of talented colleagues, have made it pos- furniture arrangement is altered?
sible to develop innovative approaches to form-finding. Algorithms, for example, can help adapt
architectural structures to biological principles: when the dead weight of a floor slab in a building
is reduced by 70 per cent, its form resembles the underside of a leaf. When AI optimises office
spaces, naturally flowing structures emerge that are based on the real movement patterns of users.
AI is also playing an increasing role in teaching and education: students train algorithms through
targeted image selection or optimise them through “reinforcement learning”, a process in which
machine learning is guided by reward systems – a process that is similar to human learning. Blum
anticipates an explosion of creativity facilitated by AI, which, in his view, would be a welcome
development to counter the current faceless monotony of new developments. “Theoretically, we
only need 50 per cent of office buildings if we want to make a meaningful contribution to climate
protection,” he argues.

Conclusion: Architecture between efficiency and experience Abbildung: Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects

The remaining half of office spaces, however, presents architects with new challenges that require
creative solutions. In an increasingly data-driven world, fact-based decision-making is becoming
ever more significant in architectural planning. The challenge lies in making soft factors such as
well-being, social interaction and user behaviour as measurable as traditional key figures for space Wie verändern sich Sichtbeziehungen und der Überblick, wenn die Möblierung entweder
efficiency. Which factors influence room acoustics, and how can disruptive background noise be linear oder organisch angeordnet ist? • How do visual relationships and the overview
minimised without compromising the openness of modern office concepts? Which workstation change when the furniture is arranged either linearly or organically?
arrangements foster social interaction, knowledge exchange and concentrated work at the same
time? Interpersonal factors of influence such as distance, visibility and proximity can now be incre-
asingly analysed through data and incorporated into planning in a targeted manner. By intelligently
linking these parameters, purely quantitative key figures can be transformed into qualitative added
value – an approach that not only enhances the user experience but also yields measurable econo-
mic benefits. Planning criteria that were previously dictated solely by space efficiency or property
value are now being counterbalanced by new technologies: user data, psychological insights and
adaptive architectural systems could enable office design to be approached from an internal per- Abbildunge: Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
spective – with a focus on human interaction, flexibility and sustainability. If we start seeing offices
as social and creative hubs that are more than just workplaces, then the question will no longer be
whether people will return – but why they choose to do so.

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