Moving from places to experiences

I am learning from younger generations the value of focusing on owning unique experiences rather than unique things. The next generation is moving from owning places to owning experiences. And this is starting to change the idea of what is desired from the work space and at home.

These experiences are going to rapidly change over the next decade and property owners and developers will need to adjust to meet the new demands. The key drivers of change will be driven by advances in how we produce and distribute energy, speed of electronic communications, methods of transportation and the last mile of logistics. These advances will be the centre point of creating new experiences.

Over a hundred years ago we saw another generation focused on buying new experiences predicated on the same four areas of technology. 

In the second industrial revolution, we saw changes in energy with the production of electric power, lighting and appliances. Transportation took the form of the motor car. In communication, the telephone was invented. The mail order catalogue gave access to goods previously not available.

All of these changes happened simultaneously. And altered the way we developed real estate, impacting on where we built, how we built and who we built for. 

In 2016, Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum said, “We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before.”

We are now fully engaged in the fourth industrial revolution. We are on the cusp of a similar transformational change. While the areas of advancement are the same the implications are very different. 

Today we have a range of completely different options available to power our cities. We can live in a cleaner, better environment with access to micro grids and cleaner energy generation through wind and solar. For example, Barangaroo South is Australia’s first open embedded network, which includes up to 1 MW solar installed on the site to service the buildings.

Communication will soon be available to us via the 5G network, providing faster network speeds, lower latency, and more simultaneous connections. What it really means is that we will interact and connect in real time. Economists estimate the global economic impact of 5G on new goods and services will reach $12 trillion by 2035 as 5G moves mobile technology from connecting people to people and information, towards connecting people to everything. New products, services, business models and entire industries will be born as 5G provides a huge leap forward in speed, capacity and connectivity.

There will also be different forms of transport – where autonomous vehicles will become the norm. Accenture Digital industry, estimates by 2020 the autonomous vehicle market will be worth US$87 billion and by 2040, four out of every 10 vehicles on the road could be autonomous. In South Australia the Lendlease owned retirement village Elliot Gardens is getting onboard the trial of ‘Elliot’ the autonomous vehicle. This trial may show us how technology could help our residents extend mobility among their friends and provide them with a sense of freedom and independence.

With the addition of drones, autonomous trucks, 3D printing and blockchain technology, the area of logistics is about to undergo an almighty shift. I see a future where robots automate large chunks of logistics. This has kicked off at the Amazon fulfillment centre in Tracy, California, where efficiency has improved by 20% with robot automation. Maybe our cities will be living fulfillment centres in the future.

All of this technology is going to fundamentally change what we build to create new desired experiences. As autonomous driving becomes pervasive, will transportation to and from work become part of the experience provided by companies? Will retail stores no longer need to have a storage room but on demand delivery to the shop in near real time?

The next generations can demand experiences very differently to what we have produced in the past. They can have greener, cleaner, safer, more convenient, adaptable and responsive experiences in life. Great architecture will adapt to focus on the future and creating experiences for the next 100 years.