What's Ahead in Design? Unpacking Gensler's 2024 Design Forecast with Diane Hoskins
In its annual Design Forecast, global architecture and design firm Gensler identifies eight key trends at play that will help move the industry forward in 2024 and beyond. Stranded assets like offices are being re-thought and re-tooled into residential spaces to help with the housing crisis, for example, and leveraging technologies like AI and creating more engaging experiences will continue to reshape the built environment for the better. In this episode, Gensler co-CEO, Diane Hoskins, explains how design can solve a complex set of challenges that design practitioners face today, and unpacks the firm’s 2024 Design Forecast report to better understand what’s behind the trends it uncovered.
Meet Our Guest
Diane is one of two Gensler co-CEOs whose collaborative leadership is fundamental to setting the company apart as a leading design firm. For her innovative leadership, Diane, along with Co-CEO Andy Cohen, ranks on Business Insider’s elite “Creators” list, a who’s who of the world’s 100 top creative visionaries. As a hands-on leader, Diane oversees Gensler’s global platform and its day-to-day operations, with 6,000+ people networked across 53 offices, serving more than 3,500 clients in over 100 countries. Diane is focused on Gensler’s global talent strategies, performance, and organizational development to ensure that we serve our clients with the world’s top talent. She is the catalyst for Gensler’s Research program, for which Diane is committed to delivering value to clients through strategies and innovations like Gensler’s Workplace Performance Index® (WPI).
A registered architect, she graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds an MBA from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA. Diane received an Outstanding Impact Award from the Council of Real Estate Women and is both a Regent of the American Architectural Foundation and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Her insights have appeared in the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, the Washington Post, and The Economist; and she was a featured speaker at Bloomberg Businessweek’s CEO Conference as well as the United Nations’ COP27 Climate Change Conference.
In her role, Diane serves as a key contributor to what is acknowledged, by its peers, as the most admired and largest architecture firm in the world, pioneering project types and design innovation strategies for the next century and acknowledged by Fast Company as one of “The World’s Most Innovative Companies.”
Diane is a member of Gensler’s Board of Directors, serving as its Chair of the Executive Committee, and is a former board chair. She is also on the Board of Directors of Boston Properties, where she holds the position of Chair of the Sustainability Committee and Member of the Governance and Nominating Committee. Additionally, she is a trustee of The MIT Corporation as well as a member of its Risk & Audit Committee.
About the Author
Robert Nieminen
Chief Content Director
Chief Content Director, Architectural Products, BUILDINGS, and interiors+sources
Robert Nieminen is the Chief Content Director of three leading B2B publications serving the commercial architecture and design industries: Architectural Products, BUILDINGS, and interiors+sources. With a career rooted in editorial excellence and a passion for storytelling, Robert oversees a diverse content portfolio that spans award-winning feature articles, strategic podcast programming, and digital media initiatives aimed at empowering design professionals, facility managers, and commercial building stakeholders.
He is the host of the I Hear Design podcast and curates the Smart Buildings Technology Report, bringing thought leadership to the forefront of innovation in built environments. Robert leads editorial and creative direction for multiple industry award programs—including the Elev8 Design Awards and Product Innovation Awards—and is a recognized voice in sustainability, smart technology integration, and forward-thinking design.
Known for his sharp editorial vision and data-informed strategies, Robert focuses on audience growth, engagement, and content monetization, leveraging AI tools and SEO-driven insights to future-proof B2B publishing.