As part of Shenzhen Creative Week 2020, anySCALE managing partner Tom Chan gave a talk at Creative Open Day, a forum organized by TOPYS, one of China's most influential websites for global arts and culture. Essentially an open day for industry creatives, the event's purpose was to showcase international design talent and their respective works to invited press and media.
For the TOPYS presentation, Tom shared his ideas about future workspaces. The main topic was on 'familiar and futuristic'; how the creative use of familiar materials can define modern workspaces with futuristic design characteristics. As lead designer of the multi-award-winning The City Next project, a two-story Future Science City Showroom in Beijing, Tom shared his methodology for implementing regular materials within a futuristic context.
The creative use of familiar materials can define modern workspaces with futuristic design characteristics.
One of the primary examples was combining MEP design and architectural lighting design with different configurations and arrangements to create surprise elements. Unique materials and bold design strategies involve dream-like 'breathing' or 'soft' metal walls where diffuse light reflections and intelligent lighting and audio systems offer more generous space and natural light feelings. With a mirror surface on the elevator and progressive visual scenes, customers and visitors are led almost intuitively through the showroom.
Tom further ruminated on COVID-19 and how people's relationships have changed forever. In one sense, we are further apart because of social distancing. In another, we're more aware of needing to share ideas, meet like-minded people, and work toward a common goal. Tom then told the audience about anySCALE's MATSU Showroom in Shenzhen. The design approach creates a high-contrast fresh-light environment to show how high-end offices with executive furniture designs can help customers envision a future workplace. The project further embodies future office trends by evoking the region's subtropical climate while fostering a spirit of shared interconnectedness.
At the end of the talk, Tom explained that the future of design is not mysterious or even unobtainable. We can imagine the future with the materials we have already.
