Bill Gates, the founder and owner of Microsoft, once said, “I predict that by 2005, the world will be your office and your marketplace.” It’s a lofty thought full of hope and vigor, but it’s one that’s got some people asking, “Where’s everybody gonna sit?”
We are currently experiencing an evolving and more mobile workplace. Cell phones keep us in touch while we’re in the car. Laptops allow us to get work done on a plane, or in a caf & #233;. Telecommuting gives many people the freedom of working at home either part-time or full-time. Companies are even changing their offices with more open spaces and sometimes, eliminating offices altogether in favor of community space. Yet, in all this upheaval, there is an extremely important element to any office that no one seems to be talking about: furniture.
Dr. Kouji Nakata, a Senior Partner at the San Diego consulting firm The La Jolla Group, has over thirty years of experience in organizational consulting and believes there are three main ingredients for having an effective workspace today. “Number one is that it has to be integrated with technology since it is the primary tool of the knowledge workers who are pushing this new economy,” he said. “Number two would be to have a balance between private space for thinking and team space for collaboration. And number three would be speed flexibility, or the ability to move and change with the speed of the market.”
There was once a time when furniture wasn’t even a consideration in creating an efficient office. It was merely considered part of the cost of doing business. Today, however, some managers have learned that a happy worker is a productive worker, and they are seeing returns on furniture investments in personal and team productivity. As businesses also implement more of a team approach, designers have to find ways to help make these offices work efficiently.
Lauren Rottet, design principal of DMJM Rottet in Los Angeles explained that today’s workspaces require more flexibility than ever before. “An office space which traditionally accommodated one individual, for example, might now be required to function as both private office and conference/teaming space within any given day. One of the ways to address this is by creating special work and storage spaces that enable a person to put aside their work quickly, close a cabinet or an overhead compartment, and move a partition to create a conference room. We are finding also that often our clients are forgoing traditional desks in favor of table desks that have wheels and can be moved easily to serve many functions.”
If you can’t redesign your entire office, there are some small, but very important things people can do to improve a work area for better productivity. According to Dr. Nakata, “When it comes to finding a direct correlation between workspace/furniture and productivity, the most easily measurable things have to do with creature comforts such as light, air, and temperature. If a worker is distracted because it’s too hot, too noisy, not enough light, or their back hurts, it takes away from their ability to perform and it’s directly measurable to an increase or decrease in productivity. I’m also seeing that the new generation of workers has very different needs, values and aesthetics when it comes to furniture. Statistics show almost a tidal wave of young people that are entering the work force and most of them prefer their workspace to look more like their dorm room than an office. Again, it has to do with creature comforts because most of them are spending 10-12 hours a day at work. ”
So what, in terms of office furniture, do these experts see changing most in the future?
Rottet responds, “Well, there’s definitely no doubt about it. The chair is still the most important piece of furniture and it’s one we spend a lot of time helping clients pick out. Because people are actually starting to view a chair as an actual productivity tool, chair design will only get smarter and smarter. We will continue to see more knobs and levers to customize the settings. Some people are even discussing the use of car seat design and technology, such as memory settings, for desk chairs.”
Dr. Nakata also noted, “I recently spoke to a graphic designer about what he would want in a chair. He started talking about having a CD-Player with speakers in the headrest and a mouse for his computer in the armrest. Chairs could easily become less and less a comfort tool and more and more an actual part of the whole technology pushing and shaping the modern office. Furniture is on the leading edge of new office organization because nothing changes faster than people’s immediate environment. In order to stay productive in a shifting environment, people need to feel comfortable.”
But with all the talk of the futuristic office and its furniture, Rottet reminds us that, “At the end of the day a human is still a human in terms of their physical proportions. Things have to work for our human shape, proportion and minds. After twenty years in this business, I see trends circling back and things people threw out years ago are in style again. As designers we are always concerned with finding new ways to make our surroundings aesthetically pleasing as well as efficient.”
Christina Lim is with DMJM.
