2. Where we’ve come from...
The offices of 19th century
clerks
Turn-of-the-century Taylorist offices
(part of the “Managerial Revolution”
3. Visions of the Future
The “Action Office II” (1968), designed
by Herman Miller’s Robert Propst: a new,
flexible home for the “knowledge worker”
An uncannily prescient still from
Jacques Tati’s film Playtime (1967)
4. The Dystopian Result...
The modern tech workplace, as seen in Mike Judge’s Office Space (1999):
Over 60% of American workers work in cubicles
5. Contemporary Solutions
The casual, work-anywhere-you-want cafeteria
of Microsoft in Amsterdam, created by visionary
office consulting firm Veldhoen + Company
6. New behavioral studies of office
workers leads to new designs...
New habits formed by new technology
and new ways of working:
the research that went into
Steelcase’s “Gesture” chair
Herman Miller’s new “Living Office” — maximum flexibility for a
highly mobile and transient workforce