CNN Future Summit: Virtual Worlds aired on June 13th on CNN International. Originating from Singapore and Palo Alto, California, the program features creative visionaries and entrepreneurs leading us into a new age of creativity and imagination.

You can still watch the show or participate in the debate forum.

Other info can be found at http://edition.cnn.com/CNNI/Programs/futuresummit/.

Unwired hosted the WorkTech North conference at Manchester's proposed media city on 28/6 and 29/6.

The conference was jam packed full of focus seminars, panelist discussions and exhibitions on future technoligies, digital workplaces, creative design spaces and change management.

The Masterclass' i attended on 28/7 included "Infrastructure for a media city" and "How do people use space?". The flavour for "infrastructre for a media city" included integrated and holistic solutions for mixed use developments. These included solutions built around service requirements, tailored solutions to meet tenant requirements and the ideal of integrated micro systems at the city scale from traffic monitoring/logistics to energy monitoring.

The office building was also discussed in terms of the need for higher space utilisation by mobilising the office using WiFi and having "visitor" spaces within the office which can be hired out.

Masterclass 2 - "how do people use space?" discussed "not desking" as opposed to "hot desking", meaning a variety of spaces are required to work, which may not be at ones desk. The essence was that the office should accommodate a range of spaces to give people the choice of where to work.

Day 2 of the event saw presentations on Digital buildings, technology in the digital age, creative space at work and an animated closing from David Firth on "Getting people to change".

Notable points from day 2 included:
* street lights which are responsive to movement
* weather responsive facades
* media water walls
* the need for a virtual working and email etiquette
* connectivity in multi-rise buildings achieved through atriums and transparent surfaces
* a networked office doesn't need to be in the one location
* Buildings give tenants identity within the streetscape
* "People are drawn together but habit & custom keep us apart" Confucius - people need space and a place to work together.

On February 20th 2007 Chris Luebkeman participated in "The 2012 Imperative: Global Teach-in" (http://ww.2010imperative.org), a live webcast which addressed global warming and climate change
issues.Broadcast live from New York, the webcast reached more than 250,000 students and practitioners of
architectural design.

Video Clips of the event are uploaded to youtube. Find the videos from the following links
video1:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBwH3xbOuHE
video2:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56I8_id3Tb8
video3:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJdhnuS30s
video4:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUzN1qc1w7Q

2/5/2007

Jack Pringle, President RIBA, introduced the event suggesting that Architects design the future therefore need to think about the future – building design cannot be done in isolation from thinking about the broader context of how people will work in the future.

There were a number of speakers throughout the day and a summary of main points from each is included below:

Glenn Lyons – Transport Driver and Intelligent infrastructure
• psychology of transport – look at how people travel and not how cars travel
• shift in transport studies focusing on behavioural, social and environmental aspects
• consider intelligent infrastructure at four levels - intelligent design, intelligent systems, intelligent infrastructure and intelligent use

Yvette Cooper – Minister for Housing and Planning
• consider buildings to be the catalyst for new technologies
• push materials to the limit and improve cost effectiveness
• it is a must to reduce carbon emissions as the consequences of climate change are potentially devastating
• need to look at built environment as a whole – new and existing buildings, way we live and power supply
• there is a huge challenge of incorporating energy efficiency measures in to existing homes and small developments. However this also presents opportunities for new technologies development and a window of opportunity to find new methods for reducing energy consumption
• Government is leading by example – new and existing public housing must meet more stringent requirements then private housing and must do it sooner.

Prof. Derek Clements – RIBA – Intelligent Building Futures
Consider futures by looking at drivers of change:
• quality of life
• demographics
• work and lifestyle changes
• sustainability
• health
• innovation
and by adapting a systems view of people, products and process.

David Fisk – Value added futures
• Real options – you buy the right to buy or sell at a future price. For example, retrofit and maintenance costs included in initial purchase price
• Life span – is longer life span necessary especially is we are facing uncertain times
• Scenario planning – common thing between all futures is the biggest future vulnerability (or biggest assumption)

Futures in Focus – Changing work styles
Davida Hamilton – DEGW
• look at the future thru what people are doing now
• distributed working models
• link between people, HR policy, technology and health and safety – occupancy, work patterns, travel patterns, home-base distribution, related costs.

Mark Walls – Asset Factor
• institutional market no longer meets needs of corporate occupier
• institutional lease of office space is disadvantageous
• 70% of CBD leased space is vacant and therefore surplus - we need to find a use for this space
• Wrong to have office space for desk working – should be used for team work

Futures Forum – Cities and urban form
Lynsey Hanley - author 'Estates, an intimate history'
• city of inconvenience – public housing estates and the boundaries they create

Rachel Cooper - Prof. Lancaster University
• we can’t drop in like a colonial officer on the natives and design spaces for them – we must live amongst them

David Bodanis closed the event postulating that offices and office design technologies have plateaued - the next revolution in office design and the built environment will be socially and culturally oriented.

CNN Future Summit brings together some of the brightest minds of our time to see how science and technology are shaping our future. With a landmark television event this June and weekly stories on this site, anyone can sign up and take part in an on-going discussion of the technologies and how they'll change our lives.

Last night I attened a forum hosted by "the workplace intelligence unit", discussing their most recent piece of research on different types of creativity, creative processes and maximising creativity through working environments.
It was certainly facinating to learn that creativity is directly related to, and possibly even inhibited by our current working environment and that the speaker's creative environment was under her desk.
Their study of over 70 employees from 5 companies identifed 4 types of creativity types in people and it highlighted that offices aren't creative - majority of study subjects said they were most creative when not in the office.
It is certainly a challenge then to ensure people's creative potential is unleashed not only in today's work environments but in the future, when external influences or drivers such as growth, have the potential to drastically transform our working environment.

Ecobuild 2007 is on!

http://www.ecobuild.co.uk/

I have the full event guide and some paraphernalia for the event if anyone would like to have a look at it - they have heaps of seminars over the next couple of days.

I have just seen to two seminars (Sustainable Architecture LIve) and in conclusion, the major emphasis on workplaces, redevelopments and new homes is zero carbon developments..

There are also many exhibitors there with many ecoproducts (also listed in the event guide) if anyone wants to look at it.