The words "office space" bring two opposing archetypes to mind. On the one hand, we have the 1950s fortress tower, with its magnificent marble foyer and warrens of hierarchically arranged offices, with your place in the pecking order denoted by the amount of space you occupy. On the other, we have the "Googleisation" of work space, where table tennis tables and bean bags constitute office furniture, chai lattes are on tap, thinking is perpetually "outside the box" and the boss wears the same gear as the intern.

While the reality for most of us is somewhere in between, there's no doubt the way we work continues to change at a pace that requires genuine foresight from architects and interior designers. Kim Nielsen, creative director of Danish architecture practice 3XN, is working with AMP Capital in Sydney to produce a new type of office environment: porous and open to the community, with shops and restaurants on the lower levels and a series of differentiated work spaces within what he terms a "vertical village".