Ulrich Blum, Senior Associate and co-leader of the Analytics & Insights team at Zaha Hadid Architects, urges that the workplace of tomorrow should be a place of attraction: intelligent, flexible and sustainable. 

Workplaces are in the midst of unprecedented transformation. The forty-hour, desk-bound week is over, replaced by fluid patterns of time, place, and shared attention. People now move seamlessly between physical settings and digital layers, often inhabiting several spaces at once. At the same time, AI agents add another dimension: virtual colleagues who contribute knowledge and support without occupying physical space. Their presence is reshaping not only how teams work, but also how we conceive the environments that host them.

 

This reality demands a new kind of architecture—one that extends beyond floor, walls, and roof to embrace code, connection, and interaction. As physical and virtual domains overlap, space itself must evolve: capable of sensing, adapting, and responding. Architecture is no longer defined solely by material; it is increasingly shaped by data and intelligence. In this shift, buildings begin to behave more like systems than objects—relational, responsive, and continuously evolving.

 

At Zaha Hadid Architects, we envision the workplace as an active system, not a passive container. Space participates in the work: shaping encounters, influencing collaboration, and adapting to changing needs. The office of the past relied on fixed layouts and rigid geometries. Today, it must choreograph overlapping physical and digital experiences, creating environments that are flexible, porous, and alive.

 

ZHA’s Analytics & Insights team applies computational design to uncover patterns that once remained invisible. Every floorplate contains gradients of experience—bright edges, quiet corners, vantage points, connective sightlines. Through simulation and AI, we can explore not a handful of options but thousands. In one project, more than 100,000 variations were evaluated, mapping daylight, circulation, and visibility to reveal the most effective configurations.

 

Just as AI is becoming a collaborator in the workplace, it also serves as a design partner—helping us generate environments that learn and adapt alongside their users.

 

This approach is already evident in projects such as the Henderson Tower in Hong Kong, where repositioning lift cores opened interiors to daylight and sweeping views, or the Infinitus project in Guangzhou, where algorithmically placed furniture enhanced wayfinding and encouraged informal encounters. In both cases, data-driven design amplified spatial quality and strengthened human connection at scale.

 

What emerges is a different design logic. Instead of aiming for a final, fixed state, architecture becomes a framework for transformation. From the workplace as a static, rigid monoculture to an organic, adaptive ecosystem, the shift is profound. Here, personalisation becomes key: not only does every individual have different optimal conditions - whether temperature, noise levels, privacy, collaboration, or ambience - but these needs vary with task and even with mood. In the past, workplaces followed a “one size fits all” model. Now it is many sizes fit one. With self-adapting workplaces, spaces can adjust to changing preferences, and over time, learn and even predict individual needs.

 

Workplaces are no longer static artefacts but living environments that orchestrate rhythms of focus and exchange, gathering and pause. By embracing flux, architecture reflects the fluidity of contemporary life while remaining deeply human.

 

The workplace of tomorrow will be intelligent, flexible, and sustainable. It will integrate regenerative materials, draw daylight deep inside, and connect seamlessly to nature. It will respond to gesture, voice, and presence. It will express company values, strengthen cultural identity, and anchor communities with vibrant gathering spaces.

 

Technology will enable these environments, but their purpose is humanisation: places that resonate with people, reflect what matters to them, and evolve with care.

 

For ZHA, the workplace is becoming a learning organism: intelligent, adaptive, and profoundly human. And just as teams now include AI colleagues, architecture too becomes a collaborator—sensing, interpreting, and participating in work. This is not a place of obligation but of attraction: a hub where people gather because the environment amplifies their purpose, creativity, and connection.

Render one by Proloog
Render two by MIR
Images three to five by Virgile Bertrand