Working Future: Ben van Berkel

This past month “Architektur und Wohnen” appointed Ben van Berkel and UNStudio ‘A&W Architect of the Year 2017’. The prize was awarded in conjunction with an exhibition ‘The Future of Work: Human Refocus’, which Van Berkel and UNStudio’s innovation and forecasting team curated.

Architonic caught up with the architect of the hour to learn more about how he’s forecasting the future of work environments.

Congratulations to you and UNStudio on being named A&W Architect of the Year 2017. Could you say a few words about the exhibition you’ve curated, ‘The Future of Work: Human Refocus’?

I like this concept of “future-proofing the future”. We’re thinking about what we can do as architects to forecast the future of work environments. Today, it’s difficult to think in typologies or in buildings like office or hospital or museum alone – the whole discussion about work today is connected to the future campus. Everyone wants a campus now...

I started to speculate more and more on this myself. Social interaction is good for the work environment, I’ve discovered. Walking more is also better because sitting down eight hours a day is not so good for you. So, the focus should be around things like mental health and reducing stress. That is actually what this exhibition is about.

So, how would you reduce workplace stress?

We’ve designed a RESET Stress Reduction Pod, where people can step into a space and de-stress themselves. For instance, with sensors, we’ve proven it’s possible to reduce stress by manipulating a visual reflection of your heartbeat. When we slow down a visual representation of your heartbeat, your heart actually beats slower. You’re manipulated by what you see, rather than what reality is…

At the 2017 Salone del Mobile, we tested the pods and received a lot of positive reactions. Now we’re thinking of introducing them into work environments. I’m even thinking of introducing them in our own office – because we are so stressed! (Laughs)

How do you design a workplace that will be technologically relevant 50 years from now?

Technology around sensory adaptive design, like that used in the RESET Pods, is advancing so fast, and I imagine we’ll use it to make buildings that focus on health and healthy indoor environments.

Take our air systems, for instance. In the future, we’d improve our air systems with the same technology and adaptability as we have now with our phones. Future buildings will be more intelligent and self-learning. You will be able to adapt them or update them with new apps or information – similar to Tesla cars.

Where do you work best? Or what do you do to motivate yourself, when you’re not in the mood to work?

I hike a lot, and I love to spend time at my second home in the Canary Islands. Lanzarote, actually. I’m at the north of the island, at the end of the village, and there is no noise – zero noise. Several times a year I go there to fill my mind with ideas and calm down and relax. But it’s not a place I could stay the whole year. I need a balance of different spaces.

And who would you most like to share a desk with, living or dead?

Well, Zaha [Hadid] was a great friend, and she was my teacher. She was very funny. A very beautiful person. I always enjoyed being with her. Then there is another great friend, Christophe Egret. Actually we were students together during our final years at the Architectural Association. We studied with Mohsen Mostafavi, a very important teacher at that time, who is now the Dean at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. But I have so many loved ones. My wife and my children, who I draw inspiration from...

The exhibition ‘The Future of Work: Human Refocus’ runs until 19 August 2017 at the USM Showroom on Französische Str. 48, 10117 Berlin.

© Architonic