On travel, coffee shops and bookstores..

And work trends for 2025, new episode of The Floorplan, and new WFH research

It’s hard to find an Australian who doesn’t love to travel. We are curious, adventurous and, let’s be honest, willing to endure torturous discomfort in the name of said adventure.

This seems to be infused into us at birth. Otherwise, who could sanely contemplate 20+ hours of flying as standard without a second thought.

As a work researcher (as well as a closet anthropologist/archaeologist - yes one day I will write that coffee table book examining the evolution of the workspaces of ancient cultures through to the modern day. Please give me any excuse to traipse through the cities and jungles of Central America again in the name of work.), I am endlessly curious about how people live and work in any city that I am in.

In a post-pandemic world where hybrid is the norm, I love hanging out in coffee shops inside Tokyo train stations at 8.30 at night watching thousands of Japanese workers spilling onto the concourse, ending their workday.

Seeing how people work, and the role it plays in their lives, is an interesting lens through which to assess what a city might be like to live in.

I am literally obsessed with independent coffee shops and cafes, even though I don’t drink coffee. This makes the search much more fun. I’m looking for proper chai, real matcha, reishi latte, cacao, and adaptogenic tonics (and exorbitantly priced exotic smoothies of the Erewhon persuasion). Erewhon will be stop number one in Los Angeles (see you soon Daisy), I always feel the need to spend a fortune stocking up in health food stores on things I probably won’t or don’t need as soon as I land.

But it’s the combination of intentional design, curated bespoke retail and how they have built community that fascinates me the most about cafes.

Coffee shops are on the immediately visit list after arriving, along with finding a great coworking space (they will always have events on for their community which I love attending), and independent bookstores. The notice board at San Francisco’s legendary City Lights has led me to some of the most fascinating people and events over the years. I mean who doesn’t want to go to a reading in Jack Kerouac alley (with a cafe next door).

I’ve spent hours taking in readings, watching movements mobilise and just wandering the aisles of City Lights. A bookstore that is open until 10pm is like a fantasy.

City Lights occupies a building fronted by a tiny triangular storefront at 261 Columbus. Founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin. The City Lights logo is a medieval guild mark chosen by Ferlinghetti, from Rudolph Koch’s The Book of Signs.

And walking and meandering a city without any plan is the best way to recover from sitting on a plane.

If we stay away from deathly box stores and chain nightmares (fluorescent lighting and elevator music make me feel like I’m having a panic attack), the independent bookstores, coffee shops and coworking spaces of a city give us glimpses into the layers of the place and culture that are otherwise missed. I spend a lot of time working from them, and seeing how others work and live in that city.

I’m travelling to three countries and six different cities over December and January. I’m looking forward to revisiting my favourite spaces and places and finding new ones, to catching up with friends and some of you in this community here. There will be plenty of design, work trends, coffee shops, bookstores, and interesting discoveries coming up.

Matt Webber and I have some exciting developments and guests coming up for The Floorplan podcast in 2025. In our final episode of the year, we discuss the latest research on work from home (WFH) practices and ponder a Gallup report that suggests the time may be now for those who want to trade down their work ambitions to focus on a better life. Matt also tries to reinvent himself with AI.

Workplace wellbeing expert Dr Jenna Mikus Founder and Managing Partner of the Eudae Group discusses her research and advising clients seeking architectural and organisational transformational change, and how work environments can be curated for health and wellbeing.

Listen here on Apple or Spotify.

As a theme for next year, I highly recommend Hell Yeah or No by Derek Sivers. I’ll be using this missive to guide everything I do in 2025. More on this in January with something new to help you start the year differently.

I’d love to hear your plans for work in 2025 (and your favourite cafes, bookstores and coworking spaces of course).

Libby x