When you’re developing something that costs $Any million to $Hundreds of millions, it better have staying power.
Here are a few ways to think about making a built product a bit more future proof:
01. Lean into what the customer is missing vs. what’s popular. We are creatures of our moment in time and our personal preferences. At one point, we wore no show socks to the gym, now we wear quarter length socks (a blasphemous style choice in mid aughts).
The way we avoid getting stuck in a moment is by focusing our creative energy on our customers' lived experiences and not what we like. For example, when designing a hotel gym: How do people workout on the road? What gets in the way of them having the optimal experience? vs. What are cool looking hotel gyms? What’s the gym like at the Amangiri? The former creates staying power, the latter gets you stuck with useless iPod docks.
02. Source inspiration from outside of the built world. It's no secret that we swim in a sea of sameness in the built world. Most placemakers sail with a tide that is lagging behind movements in culture. This happens, in part, because we reference our own industry far too often in design.
The more we can adeptly reference from outside our industry–pulling from major shifts in culture–the longer our time horizon. How is the way we eat changing? How about the ways we celebrate? What about the ways we communicate? The ways we get around? The things we buy? When we step outside of our industry and explore our context, we start to design for the future and not entirely based on the past (which is what we do today).
03. Provide space to evolve. Sometimes, pandemics happen and people have to work from home for years. Most of the time, smaller cracks in the foundations of our customers' lifestyles emerge: Airbnb eats hotel share, EV’s change our infrastructure requirements, Peloton stops supporting commercial applications, so on and so forth. To be timeless, it’s critical to not be a dusty, obsolete relic.
To adapt to the unforeseeable, build flexibility into your equation. Consider designing spaces that have multiple possible uses: movable, modular furniture, reconfigurable layouts and technology, rotating art installations…any low CapEx way of being agile in changing times.
Whether you’re a merchant builder looking to trade a product in 5 years or a long term holder creating value well over 10 years, the timelessness of your product will have a meaningful effect on its value. Follow these guidelines to be a classic, not a meme.
🚨 WHO IS NO WALLS STUDIO (AND WHAT DO WE DO)?
No Walls Studio is a design and brand consultancy that helps placemakers create spaces that people love.
Our mission is to make sameness extinct in real estate, which means that everything we do comes with new ideas and unique angles — all, grounded in a deep understanding of culture and consumers.
We do three things for our clients (often, all in the same project):
Research
Brand Development
Spatial Experience Design
Want to work with us or learn more?