College hosts lecture on social technology and the future of design

October 14, 2009
At 7 p.m. on Oct. 22 at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, the College of Design, Construction and Planning will co-host “The Changing Place of Business,” a reception and lecture featuring David Lanthrop as keynote speaker.

Lanthrop is director of Research and Strategy for Steelcase Inc., a Grand Rapids, Mich., company that serves as the world’s leading designer of work environment products and services.

He will speak about how new social technology is changing the world of business, and will discuss the effects this will have on knowledge work, creative class, innovation and learning over the next 20 years.

“I’d love people, particularly young people, to bring their expanding view of how they engage with others in the process of ‘work’ – for students, that’s learning of course – to the discussion of the meaning of buildings,” Lanthrop said.

“For example, why go to a university with a campus and regular classes? It costs more, creates a carbon cost, and may not result in better job prospects… so, why bother? What does this mean to the future of design? Of architecture?”

Lanthrop developed a cross‐disciplinary point of view of the future of work, workers and workplaces. Most recently, he led a program of advanced field‐based research and consulting as part of the global Applied Research and Consulting group.

In other assignments, Lanthrop has led Steelcase’s knowledge-management activities, and has been a thought-leader in research and development, advanced concepts, corporate strategy, product development and corporate marketing.

As an expert on future trends in the workplace, Lanthrop has been a featured speaker at a number of national conferences sponsored by groups such as the American Institute of Architects, the American Management Association and the International Interior Design Association.

He has been published in the “Harvard Business Review,” “Design Management Journal” and in other trade publications.

Margaret Portillo, professor of interior design, said that she hopes the lecture changes some long-held assumptions that students might have.

“After hearing Dave’s talk and the work he’s consulted on around the world, hopefully students leave with a broadened understanding of the workplace and the different directions that we might go in the future,” Portillo said.

“I think it will cause them to rethink what a work environment might look like.”

In addition to the College of Design, Construction and Planning, the event also is sponsored in part by Steelcase Inc., OEC Business Interiors of Gainesville, and the department of interior design. It is free and open to the public.

For information, contact Margaret Portillo at mportill@ufl.edu or 352-392-0252.