Ruth Slavid - New Work, New Workspace: Innovative design in a connected world

Innovative design in a connected world

Ruth Slavid

Ruth Slavid, 2020

Published by RIBA Publishing, 66 Portland Place, London, W1B 1AD

ISBN 9781 85946 633 9

The right of Ruth Slavid to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 sections 77 and 78.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright owner.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Commissioning Editor: Elizabeth Webster
Assistant Editor: Clare Holloway
Production: Jane Rogers
Designed and typeset byMercer Design, London
Printed and bound byShort Run Press, Exeter
Cover imageAlan Williams Photography

While every effort has been made to check the accuracy and quality of the information given in this publication, neither the Author nor the Publisher accept any responsibility for the subsequent use of this information, for any errors or omissions that it may contain, or for any misunderstandings arising from it.

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A radio programme a couple of years ago talked about new ways of working and included an interview with a man who was supposed to be an example of an agile worker. This poor creature was some kind of social worker and his workplace was his car. He went out on visits to clients and in between times used his car as an office and a lunch room. He had to contend with suspicious suburban residents wondering why he spent so long parked in their street and with the need to find a lavatory. There was no office to which he could go, and no support. Absolutely horrible.

This is not, thankfully, what most people mean by agile working. But it is a useful indication of how little we actually need from our workplaces and how rapidly they are changing. As the lockdown with the Coronavirus has shown, an extraordinary amount can be done from home, and video conferencing can replace a lot of face-to-face meetings. How lasting these changes will be remains to be seen, but they do make clear that in many instances, physical workplaces need to justify their existence by offering excellent environments.

The evolution of the office is well rehearsed, going through the factory-like Taylorist approach and the evolution of open plan, to Buro Landschaft and the development of the cubicle office. All these approaches were largely to do with efficiency, and consideration was given to the equipment that workers needed to the typewriters and telephones and filing cabinets that employers provided and that formed an essential part of many peoples working day a day that could well be based around dull, repetitive work.

Now most of those props have gone and so has much of the boring office work and the people who were employed to do it.