Discussion: Staged Working Environments - a Short-Term Trend or Survival Strategy?
- Frank Kaltenbach
The design of office workplaces has always been subject to cycles and trends. In the Anglo-Saxon world, open-plan offices predominated for many decades, whereas in the German-speaking world, it was enclosed, cellular spaces with central corridor access that found broad acceptance. In the 1980s, a great change took place. Supported by scientific arguments, the Scandinavian model of combination offices - consisting of individual cells and open-plan layouts - and the business-club form asserted themselves in administrative buildings. The main goals were a better exploitation of the site and greater efficiency in the use of floor area through the design of deeper layouts - increased further by non-territorial concepts like desk-sharing. Today, another change is taking place, with a return to open-plan developments, but with different spatial options. The traditional working desk is now complemented by tables for standing work, by armchairs and realms to which members of staff can retreat to work alone or in teams, or simply to relax. Other features include gastronomic, leisure and service facilities, ranging from in-house childcare to yoga. Employers want their workforce to come closer together - not to save space, but to maximize communication and creativity in an increasingly complex working world. Tokens of this are more colourful offices and indoor plantings in a bid to conjure a sense of a more leisurely world. In 1998, Microsoft did away with nine-to-five jobs, and in 2014, it introduced the concept of working locations where employees could choose where to sit.
