What are the factors that could influence the future of work with regard to energy systems and the built environment?

The aim of this paper is to examine which factors in energy systems and the built environment could influence the future of work. In addition, it looks at trends in relation to corporate demands for space and its specifications, and considers what the scope is for integrating business and industry within the dwelling landscape. It seeks to consider these questions on a 50-year time horizon.The paper begins by discussing the challenge of prediction of future trends, especially in a field apparently so reliant upon technological change and innovation. Because of these problems, the paper concerns itself not with picking technologies but rather with questions about the social adoption of technologies and their applications. It highlights a spectrum of coordinating mechanisms in society that are likely to be critical in shaping the future implications of built environment forms and the consequential use of energy. The scenarios discussed arise from the intersection of two tendencies: concentration versus dispersal, and local versus globally focused growth of city regions. The challenges identified in this report are associated with ‘lock-in’ to past governance modes of the built environment, exacerbated by rapidly changing demand structures. Demand is not simply changing in volume but also in character. The shifts that will need to be dealt with concern a fundamental issue: how activities are coordinated in society.