Miami-Dade/Monroe District’s Recent Presentation of “On the intersection of Design and Disruption” by Bernard Zyscovitch

On November 10th 2017, the CCIM Miami-Dade district hosted its monthly meeting at Morton’s Steakhouse in Coral Gables.

It was a unique occasion with guest speaker Bernard Zyscovich, founder and CEO of Zyscovich Architects. Mr. Zyscovich leads a transnational team of architects impacting lives around the world with innovative architecture and interior design for consumer consumption (see www.zyscovich.com).

Mr. Zyscovich’s talk was entitled, “On the intersection of Design and Disruption.”

Disruption

The underlying theme of Mr. Zyscovich’s presentation is disruption. Disruption has been most evident in the sector of technology. For almost a century, Kodak held the dominant position in the photographic film industry. Remember the Kodak moment? Yet, they failed to adapt; the disruption of digital photography was in full force. Towards the end, Kodak became protector of patents, instead of innovator in technology.

Disruption is also felt in our social lives, where social media and cellphones rule. Through the advent of social media, it is hard to establish a network without Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram.

These platforms are embedded into our social lives. Even in conversation with friends, we often show them a new picture on our phone.

Block-chain such as the architecture of Bitcoin. Other systems will emerge using “block-chain” which may change the way banking and financial transactions are transacted.

Disruption and Design

Disruption is also occurring in the design sector, where micro apartments are the new buzz. Micro- apartments are units as small as 300 Sq.Ft. To put it into perspective, the average two-door garage is between 480 to 625 Sq.Ft. Now this begs the question, why would anyone want to live there? Mr. Zyscovich provides an answer. People, especially millennials are looking for an experience. These micro-apartments have a wall bed, kitchen, and bathroom, all you need for urban living. Furthermore, they form on social space, where people tend to congregate.

According to Mr. Zyscovich, the old gospel preaching location, location, location is not true anymore. Retailers, developers, designers must find where the people are. The people are looking for an experience, for amenities, communal work, walking space, social areas with Wi-Fi. If you make a destination where it is cool and interesting, where people want to be, almost any use would work.

Mr. Zyscovich shared how the thinking in architecture has changed. Before, many architects had a vision of being the person that would change the world through design; now, many architects are happy to be a participant in a successful project. Collaboration in the office is essential and should be fun.  As an example, playing ping-pong with your colleagues should be part of the experience.

In the end, “the intersection of Design and disruption is to understand these trends and embrace them!” – Mr. Zyscovich.

Watch the full video of Bernard Zyscovitch’s talk

January 17th, 2018 CCIM Outlook Commercial Real Estate Conference
Coral Gables Country Club
7:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EST