Andrew Chadwick

It is with great sadness that we have to announce that Andrew Chadwick passed away recently. He was one of the longest-serving and most active members of the FutureWork Forum.

Andrew was well ahead of his time, promoting the idea of an office in a briefcase long before the age of laptops and the Internet. As an architect his interest in the future of work centered around the evolving workplace and for many years he championed the idea of Space and Time being interlinked. He wrote may articles about the SpaceTIme concept, the latest of which was published this year in the Global Focus magazine special supplement (see https://futureworkforum.com/spacetime-is-everything/).

Partners of the Forum have been shocked and saddened by his sudden death. Here are some of their reflections:

“I met Andrew about 20 years ago and we had breakfast at the Cavendish Hotel. He was, to his credit an enigma, all wrapped up in a puzzle. He was the perfect English gent, just flown in from Central Casting. I recall his address to the UN Food agency in Rome with 700 people being lectured to by a large chap with rumpled suit and a straw boater. Later we had an epic weekend at his old Cambridge college where we shifted industrial amount of the house claret. Rest easy old thing, you did us all proud.”

“Since our virtual collaboration began a year or two ago, Andrew has had a huge influence on me – I will miss him and our meetings – his forward thinking – his support – his crazy ideas – if someone stood for the future of work, it was him!’

“A wonderfully warm, witty, cultured and intelligent man – it was a pleasure to have known him in the short time that I did.”

“Andrew was truly in the mould of a Future Work partner. Thoughtful and thinking differently about space/time, which is such a big part creating places for getting work done. Sometimes we tend to ignore how much people rely on the physical environment, and each other to do their work.”

“We lost a gentleman and a great thinker and contributor.”

“I had many fun and intriguing conversations with Andrew; from tales of his racing (and crashing) aeroplanes to his persistent and before-their-time thoughts on space-time. In true historic FWF style, I often shared a few glasses of vino with Andrew and later, I shall have another, with fond memories in mind.”

“Andrew impacted me deeply and will keep a special place in my heart for him wherever I may go.”

“He was a kind and talented colleague”

“I have known Andrew since my first day at the Future Work Forum many years ago and have always extremely appreciated the discussions with him, his humour, his quick wit and his wise analysis. I will definitely miss him very much.”

“Andrew was a lovely gentleman and he will be much missed. We will all remember him with fondness.”

“Andrew was a true expert and visionary in his field and a pleasure to work with, he will be sadly missed . His ‘office in a box’ concept really was a symbol of how far ahead of his time he was”

“I too miss Andrew. I had the pleasure of working with him on a few future workplace webinars and meeting him in London several times. He was brilliant as well as provocative. While I didn’t know him well, I was full of respect for him.”

“Humour, warmth, engagement – such great company – and yet you always knew you were in the presence of a higher level of Space/Time”

SpaceTime is everything – whatever happens in life, happens in a certain space at a certain time. Make sure to reserve the space and time for what is really important. A Swiss architect (Renzo Piano) once said: “Architecture is a bridge between earth and heaven.”