In workplace design, architecture and strategy have long taken center stage—but the rapid rise of digital technology has reshaped the game. From real-time data insights to AI-powered simulations, the “third discipline” is no longer just support—it’s leading the charge.

A Third Big Discipline

Delivering a successful workplace needs a big team, but right at the heart of the process are three big disciplines that really shape the end product, each requiring specific skills and activities. Two of these are well-established areas of expertise, but the third is much more recent and we are learning how to use it.

The First Discipline

The design discipline is the centre-piece of our industry sector. We create a new environment to serve the occupants and the sponsoring organization, building on the physical infrastructure of existing or proposed buildings. It is the job of architects or interior designers and has been around for as long as we have been able to hold a pencil.

The Second Discipline

A project is only as good as the brief that defines it, so we engage a so-called workplace strategist to define the scope before design work starts. This function grew out of the design role as a specialism, focusing more on the client’s business and it is now a recognized part of the design development journey.

The Third Discipline

Now we must add a third skill set, which is the knowledge and application of digital technology. Its role has been to play second fiddle to space design, following on once the envelope has taken shape. It is required to deliver environmental conditions and technical tools that people regard as normal, such as temperature control, lighting and a reliable power supply. But recent advances in technology have ballooned its importance and capability. It is no longer a servant of the other two disciplines. 

A New Order

Technology can now lead the definition of a workplace, as much as any architectural input, with new and infinitely more capable solutions than just a few years ago. The third discipline has ascended the hierarchy because it can do so much more, and critically, user expectations have grown. As people demand more control and connectivity, suppliers and engineers have imported and adapted the latest technology from other sectors to give them what they want. 

What Sort of Tech Are We Talking About?

Technology is a very general term, covering everything from manufacturing processes to Wi-Fi networks.

For this conversation we are really talking about digital data and the benefits we can derive from it.

Data points can include things like environmental parameters, occupancy and space use, energy consumption, booking data and the live performance of HVAC and other building services. The benefits for occupants and their organisations come from processing and analysing data. Examples can be the display of real-time workplace information on interactive dashboards, optimising space configurations by simulating occupant behaviour and programming building management systems to reduce energy and carbon emissions.

Demand – What Has Changed?

If we just look at the last decade, we can see that the global pandemic has turbo-charged some existing trends. We can point out three areas that slipped into the spotlight from relative obscurity. These were: a growing urgency around the climate crisis, the wide and rapid adoption of hybrid working and greater expectations of employees for control of their working conditions. It seems that increased awareness of productive work outside the office generated a keen interest in having clean healthy air to breathe and more choices about when and where to work. In short, a desire for control and agency.

Supply – What Has Changed?

Plenty! We all know about the general trends in technology such as artificial intelligence, massive data centres and unbounded social media, but there are traits that affect workplaces specifically. Here are the main ones.

Data availability. Digital data is everywhere mainly because the supply of devices serving the Internet of Things (IoT) has expanded rapidly and is still growing. These sensors are no longer simply hard-wired to the systems they control, like motion sensors that turn on the lights. Now they stream live data into the ether where it can be stored for analysis and fed into data models and algorithms along with other information from anywhere in a building or real estate portfolio. 

Connectivity is now a cheap commodity and when devices are combined with broadband, universal Wi-Fi and mobile data services, we can have all the data we want.

Data processing. We have tried and tested software and protocols for transmitting and storing building data. This means that we can build reliable databases for real-time controls and future analysis and get devices to speak to each other. Cloud computing has taken the lid off processing power and storage capacity. You simply rent what you need as services get cheaper and more capable. A tenant or building owner can assemble and run live data models that would have been unthinkable five years ago. The problem of computer memory virtually disappeared with rapid technical advances that made it cheaper every year, now the same is happening with processing power.

Analysis. This is the Holy Grail of all data journeys. Data on its own, regardless of how beautifully presented, is useless. It only accrues value once it is given meaning through examination to test a hypothesis or to produce a useful result that leads to action. For example, a detailed graph showing energy consumption over time has no power until it is compared to demand to generate a plan to use less.

It will be no surprise to learn that artificial intelligence (AI) is the powerhouse for all kinds of analytic solutions. The key feature of this data domain is not a large language model like ChatGPT, but the libraries of data models and machine learning capabilities that a trained practitioner can access. AI platforms love vast volumes of data, so they can easily eat our building data streams and produce outcomes that until recently only existed in theory.

What Next?

Hire the right people. Just as workplace strategy needs different skills from designers, our digital technology is the same. The engineers that have worked alongside our designers will now be supplemented by people that drive data analysis with all the new tools at our disposal. The invisible world of electrons and radio waves is becoming the dark matter of our visible design universe. Who are these people? That is another debate.

Educate our clients. Any organization that is about to commission a workplace will be using AI and studying its future. They will also be swimming in data to run their business, but certainly less aware of how we can use it.

Educate our designers. Not about AI, but about the potential for space configurations generated from occupancy behaviour. The ability to test designs in a data model for a good fit,.The possibility to create scenarios for future growth. The idea of a virtual replica of a building that takes BIM (Building Information Modelling) to a new level of currency.

Embrace the third discipline. Build the third discipline into our business models to get ahead of the digital tidal wave so the other disciplines can exploit the power.

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