One of the world’s largest architecture firms says it feels a sense of “optimism and engagement” in 2025, fueled by cooling inflation, impending rate cuts, and developers starting to invest money again. driven by the drive.
On Thursday, US-based Gensler unveiled its “Design Forecast,” which names the trends expected to shape design in the coming year. These trends include a focus on how design needs to adapt to changes in city life – the continued shift to working from home, the resulting impact on downtowns and shopping districts, and increasingly unsupported housing. .
“Our cities are conveners,” Jordan Goldstein, co-CEO of Gensler, said in an interview. destiny In mid-November. “This is where we see the power of design to improve that experience.”
The Covid pandemic led to a change in urban life that can still be seen. Despite the company’s appeals Back to the office five days a week, Hybrid work The urban professional seems to have settled into life, reducing the need for office space and, in turn, reducing foot traffic. Urban downtown area. This, along with high interest rates, has contributed to a massive global decline in The commercial real estate marketAs office and retail tenants reduce their physical presence.
“The issues that we were seeing after the pandemic are very much driving [these design trends]Goldstein said. Then add what he calls “crisis multipliers” — such as technological change and stability, to name a few.
But he notes that planners are now much more willing to consider experimental redevelopment in the urban core. “This is an opportunity to dialogue [with planners] It’s obviously not necessarily on a regular basis, pre-pandemic,” he said. And in some markets, such as India, these discussions “were not taking place.”
In one example, Gensler is working with the Philadelphia city government to turn around South Broad Street in a 10-block-long arts park, with greenery, outdoor recreation spaces and public artwork. The firm is pursuing a similar project in Chicago Michigan AveCreating new green spaces, performance spaces and a new cafe in Jane Byrne Park’s water tower.
“Most of our cities know that they cannot operate in the future the way they have been. Bringing design into the mix really drives innovation [and] experiment,” Gensler co-CEO Elizabeth Brink said in mid-November.
Unique and predictable
In its “Design Forecast,” Gensler identifies five trends it calls “the most important and actionable insights from knowing our customers,” drawn from its dozens of offices around the world.
“We approach all of our locations and ask: What are you looking at? What do you see as your location needs?” Brink said in mid-November.
Several trends relate to the need to rethink the city post-Covid, as districts move away from the more traditional mix of distinct office districts, suburbs, and shopping and entertainment districts that mark most modern cities.
For example, Gensler predicts that mixed-use districts will take “center stage in 2025,” as cities look to “enhance community engagement and bring people together around shared experiences.”
Both Brink and Goldstein refer to the idea of the “20-minute city,” or an urban environment where people can access home, work, and entertainment in just a 20-minute commute.
But beyond that, Brink suggests there’s a desire to create a “more immersive and participatory kind of experience,” and cited sports as an example. “People want to have experiences that are unique and unpredictable. They’re doing it together, and that’s something that’s creating a sense of community,” he explained.
How to fix the office
Another major design trend Gensler highlights is the need to revamp the workplace. Instead of ordering people back to the office, employers will need to create a valuable place to work instead. Offices will be about “employee experience” and “inspiration,” the firm predicts, as tenants continue to “fly for quality” that meets the “professional aspirations” of their employees.
“We know that the workplace is still really important,” Brink said in mid-November. “It’s really important for organizations. This is really important for creativity. It’s really important for connection, it’s really important for the human experience,” he explained.
Gensler’s Global Workplace Survey, released in May, reports that nearly all employees in a high-performing office have access to space for focused concentration, compared to only 26% in low-performing workplaces.
Some companies have successfully revived in-person attendance after moving to a nicer office. UK bank HSBC Doubled the rate on which New York-based employees come to the office after moving into a spiral designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.
Still, the commercial real estate downturn triggered by hybrid work isn’t going away. Gensler predicts that depressed prices provide an opportunity for developers to create “valuable new real estate.” A cut in interest rates could encourage developers to jump in and shift their unused office space into more demand. The architecture firm says the “adaptive reuse boom” will go beyond just a straightforward office-to-apartment conversion, as developers instead embrace “creative conversion,” including sectors such as healthcare, science labs and senior living. .
But Brink noted that the transition from office to home is easier said than done. Offices do not lend themselves to traditional apartment layouts due to the need to combine plumbing infrastructure and kitchen areas.
She suggests that a co-living model, with smaller units and shared bathrooms and kitchens, would be an easier operation for developers. Construction costs could be cut by up to a third, with three times the number of units provided by the conversion.
“It’s a creative way to look at some of the interactions that might be good for different urban populations: students, retirees, good for anyone who might just need a place,” he suggested.
Converting underutilized office buildings into residential complexes could help with another of Gensler’s 2025 design trends: a push toward “affordable market-rate housing,” as changes in zoning laws and building codes make all types of homes more affordable. encourage
one plus one equals three’
Founded in 1965 by architect Art Gensler, Gensler has more than 6,000 designers spread across 17 countries in the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Gensler has many projects SANTA CLARA, CALIF. headquarters of nvidiaThe Terminal one still under construction John F. of New York. Kennedy International Airport, and Shanghai TowerThird tallest building in the world. The firm gave the information $1.84 billion in revenue For its 2023 fiscal year.
Brink and Goldstein took over as co-CEOs of Gensler in April. Their predecessors, Diane Hoskins and Andy Cohen, jointly led the architecture firm for nearly 20 years.
Courtesy of Gensler
Gensler is an unusual example of a firm that has adopted the co-CEO model. Other companies have tried to have two chief executives with mixed success: Salesforce And SAP Both had one of their two co-CEOs resign within a year. (On Monday, Chipmaker Intel adopted the co-CEO model, elevated David Zinsser and Michelle Johnston Holthaus. Interim Co-CEO(replacing retiring CEO Pat Gelsinger.)
Yet successful co-CEOs say the structure allows executives to rely on each other for support, provides a check on a particular leader’s biases, or simply allows the C-suite to do more each day. gives “Most CEOs have 24 hours in a day, we have 48 hours in a day,” Hoskins said. destinyof The Leadership Next Podcast last year.
“The two of us can work together and become a ‘one plus one equals three’ scenario,” Goldstein said. echoes around.”
