Unlocking the Future of Hybrid Workspaces: An Experimentally-Driven Theoretical Inquiry
Name of applicant
Juliane Busboom
Title
PhD Fellow
Institution
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy
Amount
DKK 2,852,349
Year
2025
Type of grant
Internationalisation Fellowships
What?
Hybrid work has reshaped the fundamental nature of workspaces, yet their core design principles remain poorly understood. This project engages in theoretical inquiry, drawing from interdisciplinary fields (e.g. informatics and workplace studies), to rethink hybrid workspaces and advance foundational knowledge about the conditions that enable hybrid collaboration, socialization, and focused work.
Why?
Current hybrid workspaces often fail to align with actual work practices, leading to inefficiencies and underutilized office spaces. Existing research tends to focus on technological solutions or evolving work practices but rarely considers their deep interconnection with the space in which work takes place. This project bridges that gap, ensuring hybrid workspaces foster contemporary work lives.
How?
The project employs a multi-method approach, combining ethnographic workplace studies with design-driven methods to deeply understand hybrid workspaces across international contexts. Research-through-design interventions will help unlock alternative workspace concepts through bottom-up design methods such as participatory speculative design, informing new theoretical concepts of hybrid workspaces.