Flexibility and agile working mean that we are no longer working 9 to 5. This in turn means that many of the ‘sq ft/hours in an office building are unused. Within this context the research explores how smart design and digital technologies might unlock the unused or hard to use time. Reservation systems could ensure employees have space as and when they need it; imaging and cybernetic systems mean that space can be tailored specifically to individual needs, while technology and intelligent design can come together to make buildings available as a social amenity during unused hours to social groups who are not regular workers in those buildings.

The changing nature of work and technological advance mean that both the potential and the need for new types of occupancy, and possibly new types of building, are now greater than ever.

The space–time office is, in its most concise definition, ‘the space you need for the time you need it’.

One consequence of this is the liberation of the workplace from conventionally run office buildings, with their regulation of working times and regimented allocation of space as the workplace evolves in response the demands of employers and employees.