How We Work: Designing the Future of Work at IDS

The way we work has changed more in the last decade than in the previous fifty.

Shaped by technology, accelerated by the pandemic, and continually evolving, work today happens everywhere: at home, in cafés, across time zones, in boardrooms, and increasingly, somewhere in between. The office is no longer a single destination, but one node in a much broader ecosystem of work.

This year at the 2026 Interior Design Show, How We Work explored that reality through a series of immersive installations that asked a simple but timely question:

If work is no longer fixed, why should our workplaces be?

IDS invited three design teams to interpret the work environments of today and tomorrow. The result was a compelling range of responses that moved beyond efficiency metrics and toward experience, rhythm, and well-being.

POMODORO — BDP Quadrangle

Focus. Pause. Repeat. Work. Rest. Recharge.

At the centre of BDP Quadrangle’s installation was a quiet provocation: productivity isn’t about constant output it’s about rhythm. Inspired by the Pomodoro Technique, the installation featured a central “oasis pod” that embodied the pause. A place to step away, breathe, and reset before returning to focused work.

Rather than celebrating hustle culture, Pomodoro reframed productivity, suggesting that how we stop working is just as important as how we work. In a world optimized for speed, this installation reminded us that intentional pauses are not inefficiencies they’re essential.

Un/Confined — Syllable × Three H

Designing for how we actually work.

Rigid, one-size-fits-all offices no longer reflect the reality of modern work. Un/Confined, created by Syllable in collaboration with Three H, explored what happens when workplaces are designed for movement, autonomy, and choice.

The installation rejected fluorescent fatigue in favour of flexibility. Spaces that support focus, collaboration, and pause without prescribing behaviour. The message was clear: Less control. More freedom. Less conformity. More humanity. Workspaces don’t need to dictate how we work, they need to support it.

MO.O.O.I – Out of Office — Moooi × Ste. Marie

Corporate culture, beautifully undone.

Playful, surreal, and deliberately subversive, Out of Office reimagined the workplace as something tactile, transportive, and unapologetically imaginative. Blurring the boundaries between work, leisure, and daydream, the installation invited visitors into a world where beauty leads and routine dissolves. Meetings had no agendas. Productivity wasn’t measured. Creativity was the point.

This was corporate absurdity turned elegant — a physical expression of Moooi’s philosophy, A Life Extraordinary. When imagination guides our daily rituals, even work can feel like wonder.

What This Means for the Future of Work

Across all three installations, a shared insight emerged:

The future of work isn’t about optimizing desks, square footage, or attendance policies. It’s about designing environments that respect how people actually think, move, focus, and recover.

Workplaces are no longer just places to produce — they are tools for culture, creativity, and connection. And as these installations showed, design isn’t responding to change — it’s leading it.