The office of the future will serve many purposes—as a corporate branding statement, multimedia hub, fitness center, think tank, and playroom—but its function as private refuge and status symbol are long gone. Driven by technology, the ruthless economics of globalization, and the delicate balance between the need for squeezing 12-hour days out of employees and keeping them alive and productive, the workplace will no doubt change as much in the next 25 years as it has in the past. Architects—who, after all, inhabit these spaces themselves—are leading the way.

By Jerry Adler, Architectural Record