Social equity and climate change are the elephants in the room hovering over Gensler’s Design Forecast for 2022, which the giant architecture firm released this week.
Drawing from a wide range of research sources, including its own, Gensler maps out what it sees as the top trends and strategies for its 28 practice areas, organized under the headings Cities, Work, Lifestyle, and Health. (The Report can be downloaded at https://bit.ly/3ILhHxf.)
The report is, in the main, optimistic, with dollops of wishful thinking. But Gensler, which generated $1.235 billion in revenue last year, is also clear-eyed and fact-informed about the challenges that lie ahead and the extent that design can help meet and exceed them. “An ongoing resilience is defining the built environment,” write the firm’s co-CEOs Diane Hoskins, FAIA, IIDA, and Andy Cohen, FAIA.
![The report advocates more renewable energy in building design.](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Screen%20Shot%202022-01-26%20at%201.59.35%20PM.png)
They see a world where innovation is accelerating, where cities are becoming more walkable and greener, where holistic design places greater emphasis on enhancing human experience, and where places “honor local context, while considering the health of occupants and planet alike.” To that end, Gensler has taken action to improve long-term resilience and sustainability of the construction industry’s supply chain by developing a new “blueprint” for specifying lower-carbon products and promoting locally extracted and manufactured materials. Gensler’s stated goal is to achieve carbon neutrality in all its work within a decade. “Never has there been a greater opportunity for the building industry to act on climate change,” the Report states.
STARTLING STATISTICS
The 91-page Design Forecast is a reservoir of information, some of which are likely to stop readers in their tracks. For example, one of the Health sector’s demographic predicaments is that, for the first time in human history, more of the population will be over 65 years old than under 18. “This changes everything,” states Gensler, in terms of how healthcare facilities will be designed to function and serve their constituencies.
Another stat, based on Gensler’ own research, found that fewer than half of the people surveyed in 15 locations are optimistic about their cities’ futures. And in its prognosis for the future of the workplace, Gensler—again drawing from its own research—estimates that, at a time when demand for commercial real estate is in flux, top-performing companies are three times more likely to increase their real estate footprint.
Sprinkled throughout the Forecast are images of Gensler’s projects that, according to the firm, have responded to different needs. For example, the Nashville entertainment district Fifth + Broadway addresses what people want from cities: convenience, community, and accessibility. This mixed-use district blends retail, workplace, residential, restaurants, music, and sports. In Austin, a 140,000-sf built-to-suit office building for Whole Foods Market’s headquarters features extended floor plates that provide interior protection from the sun, public areas with biophilic elements, and an outdoor terrace that doubles as alternative workspace.
20 METATRENDS IN PLAY
Gensler’s Design Forecast revolves around its identification of metatrends that it believes will influence client demand and the firm’s work in each of its sectors and practices. Some of these trends are not new, but have yet to achieve fruition, or have been recast by events such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the so-called Great Resignation that is restirring the job market.
The metatrends, in short, are predicted as follows:
Cities:
•A flexible public realm will deliver a more resilient future
•20-minute neighborhoods will drive equity
•Climate action demands will advance a path to net-zero
•Cities and organizations will refocus on regeneration and reuse
•Innovation districts will continue to thrive
![What might comprise a more walkable community.](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Screen%20Shot%202022-01-26%20at%201.40.33%20PM.png)
Workplace:
•The workplace must be a compelling destination
•Experimentation, prototypes, and learning are the new normals
•The workspace will play a critical role in fostering equity and inclusion
•The new workspace ecosystem will include “third” spaces for such things as coworking
•Investments in health and well-being will deliver value for employees
![Whole Foods Market's headquarters in Atlanta](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Screen%20Shot%202022-01-26%20at%203.02.50%20PM.png)
Lifestyle:
•Belonging and placemaking will bring people together
•Amenities that drive community will be highly valued
•Flexibility will become a critical investment
•Digital and physical will blend to deliver connected experiences
•Places for gathering will become neighborhood catalysts
Health:
•Design for resilience, and design that elevates human health, are one in the same
•More of the population will be over 65 than under 18 for the first time in human history
•Science organizations will set the tone for how we act in climate change and health
•Existing aging building stock cannot be ignored
•Designing “to the edges” of society will create more welcoming and supportive environments.
The report does deeper dives into each of its practices to signal dynamics and to suggest viable design strategies. Take data centers, upon which the world’s information, research, financial, and ecommerce grids increasingly rely: while acknowledging that hyperscale data centers account for half of the total investment in that sector, Gensler hops on the edge bandwagon, proclaiming edge data centers as “the next frontier” that will feed the growth of next-generation technologies. This sector is also looking for ways to reduce its energy consumption and carbon footprint by embracing low-impact materials and energy recovery. Gensler talks up the benefits of designing data centers for immersive cooling systems that submerge servers in liquid.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Gensler, HOK, HDR among the nation's leading reconstruction design firms, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 100 Reconstruction Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Gensler, Arup, HOK among the largest office sector design firms
A ranking of the Top 100 Office Design firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Callison strengthens retail design presence with RYA acquisition
Callison LLC on June 1 acquired RYA Design Consultancy, a Dallas-based retail architecture and design firm with offices in New York City. The new “Callison RYA Studio” will merge staff and clients into Callison ’s existing retail practice at their Dallas and New York offices.
| Aug 11, 2010
Prism-shaped design unveiled for five-star hotel in Saudi Arabia
Goettsch Partners has been commissioned by Saudi Oger Ltd. to design a new five-star, 214-key business hotel in the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As a design-build assignment, Saudi Oger is serving as the contractor, selected by developer Rayadah Investment Company. The project is sited on Parcel 1.08, one of the first 10 parcels currently under development in the massive new master-planned district.
| Aug 11, 2010
Construction Specifications Institute to end support of MasterFormat 95 on December 31, 2009
The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) announced that the organization will cease to license and support MasterFormat 95 as of December 31, 2009. The CSI Board of Directors voted to stop licensing and supporting MasterFormat 95 during its June 16, 2009, meeting at the CSI Annual Convention in Indianapolis.
| Aug 11, 2010
Gensler among eight teams named finalists in 'classroom of the future' design competition
Eight teams were recognized today as finalists of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom. Finalists submitted designs ranging from an outdoor classroom for children in inner-city Chicago, learning spaces for the children of salt pan workers in India, safe spaces for youth in Bogota, Colombia and a bamboo classroom in the Himalayan mountains.
| Aug 11, 2010
F&S Partners merges with SmithGroup
F&S Partners, a Dallas architecture firm specializing in the design of educational, recreational, and religious projects, has merged with SmithGroup, a top 10 U.S. architecture/engineering firm. The 40-person office in Dallas will carry the name SmithGroup/F&S.