IE Spaces for Innovation Prize

The new revolution is slowly happening now. It is characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies and industries, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human. A revolution that we should be aware and be prepared for. Engineers, designers, and architects are collaborating to pioneer a symbiosis between the microorganisms, our bodies, the products we consume, and even the building we inhabit.
We are sure that in the future, that talent more than capital will represent the critical factor of production. Artificial Intelligence substitutes for labor across the entire world. This will give the rise to a job market increasingly segregated into "low-skill/low-pay" and "high-skill/high-pay" segments, which will lead to an increase in social tensions. The largest beneficiaries of innovation tend to be the providers of intellectual and physical capital which explains the rising gap in wealth between those dependent on capital versus labor. Technology is therefore the reasons why incomes have stagnated, or even decreased, for a majority of the population.
This revolution will change not only what we do but also who we are. It will affect our identity and all the issues associated with it: our sense of privacy, the time we devote to work and leisure, and how we develop our careers, cultivates our skills, meet people, and nurture relationships. It is already changing our health and leading to a "quantified" self, and sooner than we think it may lead to human augmentation. The list is endless because it is bound only by our imagination.
On the other hand, this revolution will improve the quality of life for majority of the people. Our workplaces and organizations are becoming "smarter" and more efficient as machines, and human start to work together, and we use connected devices to enhance our supply chains. Our learning is not bounded within the school but with ourselves. We have accessible knowledge everywhere and it will depend on us how to nurture it. The retail industry is slowly adapting with our new technology and we can buy everything we need by just tapping our mobile phones.
As an Architect, we should envision adapting the societal needs of human according to the technology that the innovator introduces. We are also responsible in providing a better quality of living. Therefore, connecting every aspect with one another will make a huge difference: the technology, the working industry, the retail industry, and the way we learn things. There are countless possibilities but this everything starts with our minds.