ANATOMY
of the perfect

OFFICE SPACE
HOME OFFICE
vs.

10%

38%

of US
employees
now
regularly
work from
home.

of employed
Americans with
college degrees do
some or all of their
work from home.

HOME WORKING

13%

led to
performance
increase

9% was from

working more minutes
per shift (fewer
breaks and sick days)

4%

from more calls
per minute (attributed
to a quieter working
environment)

Promotion rate conditional on performance fell.
COLOR
PSYCHOLOGY

PURPLE
royalty, wealth,
sophistication, exotic,
spiritual, prosperity,
respect, mystery

YELLOW
RED

happiness, laughter,
cheery, warmth,
optimism, hunger

GREEN
natural, cool,
growth, health,
envy, tranquility,
harmony

ORANGE
love, energy,
excitement,
intensity,
warmth,
comfort

BLUE
calm, serenity,
wisdom,
loyalty, truth

love, energy,
excitement,
intensity,
warmth, comfort

WHITE
purity, innocence,
cleanliness, sense
of space, neutrality

BLACK
authority, power,
strength, intelligence,
evil, mourning
OPEN SPACE
CUBICLES
vs.

70%

of american
employees
work in open
plan offices

Mark Zuckerberg’s
new office plan is the world’s largest open plan office.
OPEN SPACE CUBICLES
vs.

Productivity killers in the open office

conversations
machines
70

temperature

ringing
phones
Those over 45 are more sensitive to
these conditions and have a bigger
(negative) effect on their productivity
OPEN SPACE CUBICLES
vs.

open office setups reported

62% more sick days

on average than one-occupant
layouts (Scandinavian Journal of Work Study)

+

Participants that moved into an open
office plan were not only unhappy,
but their team relations had
broken down even more so.
OPEN SPACE CUBICLES
vs.

A study of 42,000 US office
workers in 303 buildings concluded:
Open-plan layouts are disruptive due to

!
loss of privacy

uncontrollable noise

and were clearly outperformed
by enclosed private offices.
THE OFFICE

In 1980, half of new
office furniture was
placed in cubicle offices.

CUBICLE
A popular, cheap, efficient way to gather
employees in one grand arena in the 1960’s.

It is estimated that by 1974,

cubicles accounted for
20% of new office
furniture expenditures.

The average office
space per worker in the
U.S. dropped from

250 sq ft
in 2000

-TO-

190 sq ft
in 2005
HISTORY
OF THE OFFICE SPACE
A brief history of how seating arrangements have
reflected our changing attitudes toward work.

1

TAYLORISM
(ca. 1904)

American engineer Frederick
Taylor was obsessed with
efficiency and oversight and is
credited as one of the first
people to actually design an
office space. Taylor crowded
workers together in a completely
open environment while bosses
looked on from private offices,
much like on a factory floor.
HISTORY

2

OF THE OFFICE SPACE

BUROLANDSCHAFT

(ca. 1960)

The German "office landscape" brought
the socialist values of 1950s Europe to
the workplace: Management was no
longer cosseted in executive suites.
Local arrangements might vary by
function—side-by-side workstations for
clerks or pinwheel arrangements for
designers, to make chatting easier—but
the layout stayed undivided.
HISTORY

3

OF THE OFFICE SPACE

ACTION OFFICE
(ca. 1968)

Bürolandschaft inspired Herman
Miller to create a product based
on the new European workplace
philosophy. Action was the first
modular business furniture
system, with low dividers and
flexible work surfaces. It's still in
production today and widely
used. In fact, you probably know
Action by its generic, more
sinister name: cubicle.
HISTORY

OF THE OFFICE SPACE

4

CUBE FARM
(ca. 1980)

It's the cubicle concept taken to the
extreme. As the ranks of middle
managers swelled, a new class of
employee was created: too important
for a mere desk but too junior for a
window seat. Facilities managers
accommodated them in the cheapest
way possible, with modular walls. The
sea of cubicles was born.
HISTORY

5

OF THE OFFICE SPACE

VIRTUAL OFFICE
(ca. 1994)

Ad agency TBWAChiatDay's
LA headquarters was a Frank
Gehry masterpiece. But the
interior, dreamed up by the
company's CEO, was a fiasco.
The virtual office had no personal
desks; you grabbed a laptop in
the morning and scrambled to
claim a seat. Productivity
nose-dived, and the firm quickly
became a laughingstock.
HISTORY

6

OF THE OFFICE SPACE

NETWORKING
(present)

During the past decade, furniture
designers have tried to part the sea of
cubicles and encourage
sociability—without going nuts. Knoll,
for example, created systems with
movable, semi-enclosed pods and
connected desks whose shape separates
work areas in lieu of dividers. Most
recently, Vitra unveiled furniture in
which privacy is suggested if not
realized. Its large tables have low
dividers that cordon off personal space
but won't guard personal calls.
Click!

START BUILDING

your dream

OFFICE
SOURCES
http://www.wired.com/culture/design/magazine/17-04/pl_design
http://www.ehow.com/about_5268185_history-office-design.html
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-moral-life-of-cubicles
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2401283/Open-plan-offices-DONT-boost-productivity-Study-rubbishes-economic-benefits.html
http://qz.com/85400/moving-to-open-plan-offices-makes-employees-less-productive-less-happy-and-more-likely-to-get-sick/
http://www.arttherapyblog.com/online/color-psychology-psychologica-effects-of-colors/#.Up5bpWRDstc
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/07/22/telecommuting-home-office-work/
http://www.wikihow.com/Set-Up-an-Ergonomically-Correct-Workstation
http://www.fitsugar.com/Sitting-101-Desk-Ergonomics-1669975

Anatomy of the Perfect Office Space