Office Design: 12 Iconic Workplaces That Redefined the Modern Office
It’s easy to think that office design has never been more relevant or more debated. In many ways, this is true. The COVID-19 pandemic changed work culture in ways nearly unimaginable—the home office and the office became synonymous, then uncoupled into a relationship more frictional that seen before. Some companies introduced so-called lifestyle amenities to incentivize workers back to the office, and some ditched a collaborative workspace all together. Even though these past three years may represent some of the biggest shifts in office design, The Office of Good Intentions. Human(s) Work, a new book from Taschen, reminds us these weren’t the first.
“We focused on projects in the US built in the last fifty years that could be understood as ‘canonical,’” Florian Idenburg, a co-author of the book tells AD. “They represent an evident attitude towards what, at that moment in time, one believed the office space needed to be.”
As the authors explain in the introduction, the purpose of the book is not to tell readers how one-room sheds lead to cubicles and how those, in turn, led to digital nomadism; it doesn’t even say any one office is good or bad. Instead, the authors look at the intention, execution, and repercussion of office designs. Through a collection of textual and photo essays, Idenburg and co-author LeeAnn Suen compose a history of the office in 12 distinct movements.
“The 12 offices profiled purposely include a range of divergent office types—corporate headquarters, remote laboratories, urban commercial real estate, and sprawling campuses,” Suen says. “Some are starkly alien in their emptiness, as in the case of the Weyerhaeuser Headquarters by SOM and Sasaki, while some are jam-packed with a surreal maelstrom of people, animals, tchotchkes, and workstations, as in the case of the TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles office by Clive Wilkinson Architects.” Below, find 12 offices surveyed by Idenburg and Suen in The Office of Good Intentions. Human(s) Work.
