The demise of the boring office by adding ‘light’ versions of our homes represent a return to pre-20th century life in which the private and professional are undistinguishable. The lounge is the most careful enshrining of economic value addition and not unlike marketeers, or big-data companies feeling the pulse of the market – architects sense and shape the rhythm of this reestablished global home. The logic of the lounge cuts both ways: the added comfort is expected to increase economic activity and can be immediately enjoyed by its user. It enables a swift move beyond professional into the personal, appealing to instant intimacy and trust. The rise of the lounge as workspace combined with increasing miniaturization of labor through self-employment and independent contracting, perhaps blockchain advances, and extending globalization and travel, suggests the airport lounge might become our ultimate workspace.
