When a global provider of real estate services peered into thefuture, what came into focus above all else was flexibility — aflexible workplace unlike any yet seen in the real world.

In this world, real estate facilities will be consumed by employees, employees,entrepreneurs and working free spirits. Ownership offacilities, where it will exist, will be joint, and far more workwill be performed with far more efficiency and accuracy at the“hive” or, as we currently know it, the home.

This is what emerged from Smart Workplace 2040: Rise of theWorkspace Consumer, a truly exhaustive effort by Johnson ControlsGlobal Workplace Solutions unit to determine how and where peoplewill work in 2040.

That date isn't so far off, which is what made the researchespecially intriguing.

It wasn't pie-in-the-sky research either, but a study pulledtogether from surveys, workshops, analysis of existing data,picking the brains of experts, and then a bit of extrapolation bythe study's authors.

“The workplace of 2040 is far more agile, thepresence of technology is ultra predominant and human beingsare highly reliant on it. Yet the technology is shy, not intrusive,transparent, and highly reliable,” the report read.

“By 2040, we will not own facilities, we will consume them. Ourreal estate portfolio will resemble a network of workplaces, andour workplace will be a co-working environment spread across aneco-campus,” the report continued. “The Smart Workplace 2040anticipates important changes to our working environment. Aconcerted response from CREM and FM, workplace and HR functionswill help to ensure that businesses are fully prepared for thechanges ahead.”

Predictions of the research included:

• The home will become a hyper-connected and adaptive place towork, responsive to the environment and its users, supportingmultiple requirements simultaneously;
• Workers will make use of “complex software applications [thatwill] suggest what they should do to maximize performance;”
• True offline time, or personal time, will become both a luxuryand a necessity. Being physically present will be perceived as moreauthentic, a privilege rather than a requirement;

• Adaptive white noise technology will make it possible to have afirst rate telepresence session in an open environment, thuseliminating concerns about what's going on around the flexibleworker;
• Consumers will literally build their own products, boughtthrough their smartphones using mobile web applications, andprinted on demand;
• Commuting will come under pressure not only because of the timeand energy consumed, and restrictions on driving and parking, butbecause flexible workspace concepts will render it unnecessary inmost cases;
• New leaps forward in applying technology to work will eliminatemany of the accepted concepts of when, where and how work isaccomplished.

Naturally, real estate use was a focus of the report. Hotdesking, hoteling, choose your term — these concepts now in placewill be taken to the next level and beyond as human capital, oremployees, demand to work when and where it best suits them becausethat will best suit the outcome of their effort.

Management will finally let go of the need to see butts inseats, and will release the potentialfor productivity and creativity that has been held backby conforming to an outdated workspace model.

Here are recommendations from the study that, the authorsbelieved, will prepare those who follow them to take advantage ofwhat's coming next.

• Consider a dispersed real estate model that deploys mixedfacilities and multipurpose environments to allow fast response toutilization patterns and demands;
• Design shared facilities to answer a broader demand from usersdispersed across a large geographical region: Co-workingfacilities, access to local collaboration hubs, leisure andentertainment facilities within close amenities;
• Design social, cohesive and adaptive working environments thatempower users and teams across different work contexts andcollaboration modes;
• Develop intuitive user interfaces to enhance user experiences:Immersive solutions and services, technology based services.

To support this workspace realignment, the study recommendedthat companies review their work processes and assets to develop arange of services designed around the web and mobile interfaces torespond to a new demand of highly connected users. The study alsourged companies to integrate invisible shy technologies infacilities to track user activities, record user experience andrespond in real time to user demand in an unobtrusive, subtlemanner.