Mapping New Work Practices in the Smart City

Abstract

The proliferation of digital connectivity and mobility is having a profound impact on collaboration practices and coworking spaces in urban environments. This chapter focuses on nomadic patterns of designers, freelancers, hackers, and creative professionals, and seeks to map the urban spaces that they occupy and navigate in order to go about their work practices. After a brief introduction on the use of office space and recently emerged city bound working practices, we first review previous studies and current literature about the impact of digital connectivity and mobility on collaboration and coworking spaces. Two cases (the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto, Canada, and The Edge, a digital culture centre at the State Library of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia) will be introduced as examples of social practices in, and uses / employments of coworking and collaboration spaces. The subsequent discussion of best practices and future designs of collaboration and coworking spaces will focus on three distinct themes: First, the tension between universal vs specialised demands on space; second, the need for perpetual messiness, and; third, the unfolding urban ecology of work spaces. Finally, we will conclude with some considerations on the configuration and promotion of collaborative working practices especially with regards to urban planning.