Explore the World's Best Ideas
Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.
Unworking
- Modern office came in over 100 years ago, as an extension of the factory floor
- Backlash against the machine-inspired modern office led to new designs aimed at making the workplace feel like a community
- Rise of the knowledge worker heralds the age of the distributed, networked office
- Office design considers how people feel about work.
- The office reflects the organizational move from hierarchy and uniformity towards variety and change
- Spaces within buildings adapt to technology that frees workers from their desks or offices
- Neighborhoods where people work are changing as offices become more porous
1
52 reads
The modern office came into being over 100 years ago, as an extension of the factory floor.
“The trouble was that in giving managers complete control over the office environment, the balance between organizational and individual needs was twisted out of alignment.”
1
39 reads
Backlash against the machine-inspired modern office led to new designs aimed at making the workplace feel like a community.
“The new HQ was as far away from Taylorism in aesthetic and organizational terms as you could get: a city of its own on the outskirts of a city.”
1
27 reads
The rise of the knowledge worker heralds the age of the distributed, networked office.
“The networked office repositions the office building as one node in a dynamic organizational network, not a static artifact that stands alone.”
1
29 reads
Knowledge work takes place in these four types of spaces.
- “The academy” – A campus with high corporate visibility, such as Apple’s headquarters.
- “The agora” – A porous corporate workplace, open to the city and marketplace, such as London’s King’s Cross redevelopment, home to a transit hub, a large Google office and many shops and offices.
- “The guild” – A permeable workspace dominated by one peer group with low corporate visibility, such as co-working spaces.
- “The lodge” – A home with everything a person needs to do his or her job, such as an internet connection and videoconferencing hardware.
1
20 reads
Office design today considers how people feel about work.
“A combination of clarity and empathy, for example, can be seen to create a strong foundation for well-being, as empathic spaces such as rest areas and services for better health are given clear visual priority in the workplace.”
1
21 reads
The office reflects the organizational move away from hierarchy and uniformity towards variety and change.
“Boston Consulting Group… has even developed a ‘collision coefficient’ to measure the number of encounters, encourage people to move around and recommend colleagues to meet within the workforce.”
1
19 reads
Spaces within buildings adapt to technology that frees workers from their desks or offices.
“An app-based experience will analyze past performance, look at current activities, review the ‘data lake’ and recommend where to work, in what space and with which people.”
1
19 reads
Neighborhoods where people work are changing as offices become more porous.
“Results during lockdown showed that 45–50 % of people were happy to continue working from home, with the remainder mostly wanting a hybrid existence.”
1
20 reads
CURATED BY
CURATOR'S NOTE
The Reinvention of the Modern Office
“
More like this
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving & library
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Personalized recommendations
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates