The modern workplace has changed dramatically over the past several decades, shifting from private offices to collaborative open-plan spaces and adapting to technological innovations and increasingly mobile employees. Clive Wilkinson Architects , the California-based firm behind some of the highest-profile work spaces in recent years, including Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters, has created a concept for the future of working. Commissioned by Flaunt magazine for its fall issue, which explored crossovers between California and London, the Endless Workplace proposes a solution to the British capital’s long commutes and crowded transportation systems by adding a layer of work spaces above the city.

The Endless Workplace by California-based firm Clive Wilkinson Architects.

The design combines the ideas of a coworking space and working from home. Wilkinson imagined a system in which a worker’s daily commute consists of taking the stairs or an elevator up to a work space above their home, rather than spending hours on the train to get to a central office. “Technology is progressively changing the conditions and the environment of work, making the old reasons for colocating in a variety of corporate offices increasingly redundant,” says Wilkinson. “Work is migrating to new opportunities, and we felt it important to speculate on what the new environments for work might be. And these new ‘technologically liberated’ conditions could challenge the entire circulatory fabric of cities, rendering traditional forms of movement, roads, sidewalks, etc., potentially redundant, too.”

The design features open work spaces spread above London.

The Endless Workplace imagines a flexible environment where employees work alongside their neighbors, strengthening communities and encouraging collaboration between different disciplines. Circular courtyards allow light to reach the streets below and frame the city’s landmarks. While there probably won’t be an office space covering the city of London anytime soon, the design does offer practical solutions for the future, such as eliminating central offices and cutting down the carbon dioxide emissions (and wasted time) created by long daily commutes.