Evolution of Office Typology L7 | History of Offices 1700s to 2020
IR 2613: HISTORY OF INTERIOR DESIGN
Tutor: Amal Shah | Sem 3 | Monsoon 2020 Faculty of Design, CEPT University
An Office - “Where people connect, collaborate, innovate, create and document information” It is an interrelated system of people, process and technology that share an interdependent dynamic relationship. It is primarily a place for decision making.
Manager
Employees Work Relationship
Work Environment Demonstrated in space through planning, communication patterns.
2
Working of an Office In an office organization, mail is opened, read, phone calls are made and received and typed or mimeographed material is made and sent out post processing. In all the functions and activities of the office can be summarized as “communication and control”. Communication facilitates the process by providing the data needed as a basis for action.
Closed loop system
Data Input
Work Processing
Data Output
Functions Data Input- Receiving and recording information through Letters, invoices, circulars, notices, memos, emails. Work Processing- Data synthesis, analyzing, Collaboration, Communicating- Face to face interactions, Knowledge sharing (Learning), Focus work, meeting (conferencing), Socializing. Data Output- The form in which the processed work is delivered differs with the type of organization. For eg: Lawyer: Case papers, ďŹ les. Architect: Drawings IT Services: Softwares, Applications, Presentations. 4
What is the Office all about? As we think of communication and control, the word “control” quickly emerges as the dominating and powerful concept. Communication is only the to aid the control, providing the data needed as a basis for action, and carrying the controlling decisions outward to the functions which ·are being controlled. Control is the making of decisions in a form that will lead to their implementation. It cannot be effective unless communications supply the context in which decisions are to be made and the exact information about the specifics which are being controlled.
5
We all understand that the address of a business is its main office (not its mine, factory, or showroom, unless the main office is combined with one of these) and all important communications must be directed to the main office. Both members of the organization and outsiders will expect all important communication to come from that office also. The factory manager waits for instructions from headquarters before he makes any important move. In many businesses we hear repeated phrases such as "we're waiting for word from upstairs” or “Let the dean decide” because the controlling main office has taken on the quality of a kind of oracle from which all significant decision will flow.
6
Inflowing communication will take the form of letters, reports, phone calls, punched cards, magnetic tapes or other media and outflowing communication will use the same channels. But if we look more closely at these communications, we will find some more subtle distinctions. Nothing symbolises this better in government offices as those old black colour stackable big files! And same thing can be said about emails or letters in a private organisation. Consider a stock-brokers office. It is certainly a busy place where fortunes can be made and lost, but it deals only in communications. The stocks and bonds are, themselves, merely printed messages and so are the checks or cash that pay for them.
7
Organizational structure in an OfďŹ ce An organizational structure is an abstract entity consisting of titles, ranks and procedures. These give the desired stability, repeatability and reliability while making the abstractions more tangible. It is generally perceived in the form of roles and charts which give a ow of roles undertaken by every person working for organizational success.
Vertical Hierarchy
In the planning of an ofďŹ ce, organizational structure is the primary aspect since governs the type of communication- interactions encouraged as well as organizational values to be expressed through space. Flat Hierarchy 8
Theory of Office Design
● ● ●
Hierarchy Personalization Organizational Values
● ●
Type of Work Typology of workspace
●
Work Patterns
● ● ● ● ●
Office Design Ambience
Organizational Structure
Employee Performance Flow of Communication
Face-Face Interaction Interconnections Proximity Job Autonomy Social Dimensions: Work relationships
Degrees of Human Interaction
● ● ● ●
● ● ● ● ●
Spatial Divisions
Spatial Planning
Aim: To increase Productivity and efficiency
Employee Wellbeing Biophilia Colour psychology Spread of Daylight
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Open v/s Close area Privacy Notions Controls & boundaries Nature of Furniture Material Expressions
Occupancy planning Circulation Flow Orientation Ergonomics Work Relationships Equipments planning Network systems Acoustics Services Inside-Outside connection 9
Activities in an OfďŹ ce
Working- Focus work
Learning- Knowledge sharing
Conferencing
Collaborating
Socializing
Recreational activities 10
During the days of agrarian economies (Neolithic era to 800 BCE), the ofďŹ ce could have been a corner of the kitchen, where workers were paid or goods bartered and the farmer made notes in his own form of shorthand.
11
The Somerset House Conference between English and Spanish diplomats that brought an end to the Anglo–Spanish War (1585–1604). 19 August 1604 12
The first offices were at home, a shelf in the kitchen; a desk in the front room. The Ufizzi in Florence, designed by Giorgio Vasari, is the first known office building. ('Uffizi" means "office” in Italian.) Used for government administrative offices, it adjoined the Medici Palace and dates back to the 1560s.
13
Early Offices The earliest "offices" can be dated to the moment one person crouched down and bartered with another for goods or services and some kind of record was made of the exchange.
Group Gathering
Personal Work -space
Office
Office
No specific setup
Personal setup
Dedicated space
Sometimes shown a space in an ancient castle or monastery and told that it must have been "the office. " It is never more than a bare room. There are illustrations showing medieval monks at work on manuscripts. 14
Albrecht DĂźrer, Saint Jerome in His Study (1514), engraving. 15
Early Offices
Office design and planning is too new an activity to have any formal history. Office buildings show up in architectural histories only in the final chapters because no such buildings were built before the 1880s.
In fact, the typical historic office is a room in a house. Before it, we can assume the office in the coat pocket was the norm, but when a room became necessary it was most often a room in a house. 16
Industrial Revolution and its impact The evolution of an idea into an invention and an invention into a factory, required paperwork, processing, order books, and improved accounting. The inventions of Bell, Morse, and Remington developed the ofďŹ ce into a centre of operations and communication. The pace of ofďŹ ce work quickened. When E. Remington & Sons developed a practical typewriter, the chief problem was a lack of operators, which led to the birth of commercial schools. By the end of the 19th century, the telephone was used for short-distance communication, and the telegraph was used for long distance.
"An Old-Time Counting Room," Fell's Point, Baltimore, MD, c. 1770 17
Industrial Revolution and its impact The era also created office machines to cope with increased paperwork. The development of post, trains, and telegraph facilitated transactions. The office became the hub of expanding trade and the development of new machinery. Morse telegraph in 1844 and the invention of the telephone in 1876, the factory and business office could be separated. As enterprises grew in complexity, so did the office function. Offices grew when cottage industries became factories geared to large-scale production.
A Cotton Office in New Orleans, 1873 - Edgar Degas 18
Industrial Revolution and its impact The exchange of information was faster: contact between buyers and suppliers was speeded up not only locally but nationally and internationally. Yet, in spite of the expansion of offices during the Industrial Revolution, more people were involved in manufacturing than in office functions.
"Secret Office, at the General Post Office," London, England, 1844. Letters were opened and resealed in the Secret Office. 19
Industrial Revolution and its impact Emergence and expansion of office spaces
Idea
paperwork
Innovation
processing
sales/selling
Factory
Accounting
Emergence of Modern Offices
The industrial revolution signaled the emergence of the modern office as we now know it, as the financial, rail, retail and telegraphy sectors grew significantly and began to diversify. In order to handle such growth, businesses employed more secretaries and administrators to handle all the mounting bureaucracy. 20
Industrial Revolution and its impact Changing and evolving notions of Privacy
Contribution of Research to develop Privacy arrangements in Offices
See-through partitions allowed for spying on workers
Importance to privacy was given, but at the same time employers wanted to keep their eyes on employees. By the 20th century, workstations had become more cubical-like and different departments were ‘sectioned off’. More recently, we’ve seen workspace providers adopt the ‘open-plan’ layout of pre-industrial revolution times 21
22
Photographs that were taken at the Times Of India, Mumbai on the occasion of their Diamond Jubilee in 1898.
23
Photographs that were taken at the Times Of India, Mumbai on the occasion of their Diamond Jubilee in 1898.
24
Photographs that were taken at the Times Of India, Mumbai on the occasion of their Diamond Jubilee in 1898.
25
Photographs that were taken at the Times Of India, Mumbai on the occasion of their Diamond Jubilee in 1898.
26
Photographs that were taken at the Times Of India, Mumbai on the occasion of their Diamond Jubilee in 1898.
27
28
OfďŹ ce of Secretary Spencer Baird (1878-87) in the Smithsonian Institution Building, Washington, DC
29
The New Marble Cash Room, United States Treasury," Washington, DC
30
OfďŹ ce of Secretary of the Interior Washington, DC, 1879
31
32
33
34
Post ofďŹ ce in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
35
In the early 1900s, american engineer Frederick Taylor was the first to design a functional office space. The design was one that resembled a factory, with long tables of workers completing repetitive tasks, quite cramped together. The way of working was efficient, introducing routine and structure to the workplace, the small tasks assigned meant skill requirement and time learning was low, which allowed a good amount of work to be done.
36
Industrial Revolution and its impact Creation of Office machines due to increasing machine work
Speaker Tubes in Offices
The era also created office machines to cope with increased paperwork. The development of post, trains, and telegraph facilitated transactions. These developed the office into a centre of operations and communication. 37
Industrial Revolution and its impact Expansion of Office workspaces in every sector - From Factories to Stores
Office requirement increased from large scale setups to every small scale setups
Offices appeared in other places also, in factories and stores, wherever the size of a business grew to the point where vest-pocket offices or home offices ceased to be adequate. The planned office building connected with a factory or warehouse appeared around this time to serve the giant company which only became common as mass production and mass distribution systems developed. 38
Sky Scrapers
Late 1800s
Metal and Glass
Rise to skyscrapers
An increase in Metal and glass construction gave rise to skyscrapers. They are in the business district and they are high enough to need elevators. The invention of the elevator occurred conveniently early, making this device available when the ofďŹ ce buildings began to move into the old business districts.
39
1900s
Sky Scrapers
City
Skyline Skyscrapers
City Hub
The skyscraper made a dramatic impact on the city skyline. There was a rush to build the tallest building in the world leading to drastic development in the Urban Environment. 40
1930s
Sky Scrapers
Steel skeleton frame
Economic architecture
The need for more ofďŹ ces and new construction techniques combined to revolutionize ofďŹ ce design. The steel skeleton frame created a distinctly new form of commercial architecture-the skyscraper. Skeletal construction reduced the amount of masonry required. Structures were more economic. 41
Sky Scrapers
1950s
After World War II, multinational corporations tended to consolidate and centralize their operations. A good number of them commissioned high-rise ofďŹ ce buildings to be built in large urban centres. It was the time of the glass box. For the most part, interiors were standardized and systematized according to status in the corporation. 42
1950s
Sky Scrapers - Beginning of Systemized Office Interiors
Office Interior System
Standard Interior set
Company Interiors
Represent
Company Identity
The post war years marked the conscious beginning of systematized office interiors. By 1949, Eero Saarinen had designed a flexible, integrated interior system for General Motors Research Centre in Michigan. 43
Urban Environments - Evolution 19th century
Manufacturing
Processing
20th century
Manufacturing
Processing
During the 19th century, the number of people employed in ofďŹ ces was smaller than those employed in manufacturing, but the 20th century reversed that. Fewer people produce goods and more people process information. 44
Sky Scrapers
1970s
The construction of the ďŹ rst World Trade Center complex in New York City was conceived as an urban renewal project to help revitalize Lower Manhattan spearheaded by David Rockefeller. Extensive use of prefabricated components helped to speed up the construction process. A special type of crane, suitable for constructing such tall buildings, that used hydraulics to lift components and provided its own power was used in construction
45
Urban Environments
Traditional desks, bulky and difďŹ cult to move, were replaced with lightweight tables and later in the modern times, by free layouts with no ďŹ xed arrangement
46
Urban Environments- Interconnections
Vertical connectivity
Horizontal, Vertical connectivity 47
Office Automation The telegraph, telephone, and typewriter revolutionized the late-19th-century office and created mounds of paper. The basic electronic armoury of Dictaphones, calculators, word processors, computers, copiers, printers, telephones, fax, and telex generates information, stores it, reproduces it, and transmits it. The late 20th century automated office are requiring their own management as increasing automation integrates the existing office function into an network
Increased automation will link office activities, speeding up communications and access to information. The purpose of automation is to increase productivity among white-collar workers, from clerical staff to executive levels 48
Computerization and Automation
Computer technology has recently been applied to the automation of office tasks and procedures. Much of the technology is aimed not at improving the efficiency of current office procedures, but at altering the nature of office work altogether. It impacts individuals, work groups, and the structure of the organization. 49
Application of Technology in offices
Changing technologies—including personal computers (PCs), slide projectors, movie projectors, overhead projectors, television monitors, emails, e-calendars and multimedia systems, and the Internet—have had a major impact on the office environment since the start of the twentieth century. The ability to use technology is an essential skill in the ever changing workforce of the twenty-first century.
50
Humanizing the Office
Traditionally, workplace design has prioritized building infrastructure and physical environment over the space’s inhabitants – the employees. Now, as employers shift the workplace experience in order to retain talent and adapt to workers’ changing needs, office design is becoming more human-centered. 51
Humanizing the OfďŹ ce: Encourage Collaboration and a Sense of Community
One of the best ways to humanize your workplace is by building a sense of community. If people feel like they belong to something greater, they are more likely to be involved in team collaboration and community activities. 52
Humanizing the OfďŹ ce: Use GamiďŹ cation
One of the best ways to humanize your workplace is by building a sense of community. If people feel like they belong to something greater, they are more likely to be involved in team collaboration and community activities. 53
Humanizing the OfďŹ ce: Promoting Health & Happiness
Numerous studies have shown that access to daylight and fresh air, use of natural materials and visibility of plants/green zones can function to reduce stress, improve mental clarity and advance wellness.
54
Humanizing the Office: Celebrating the Individual
Homogenous office environments are no longer the norm – or acceptable – for the most innovative companies. Workplace design that puts talent at the forefront celebrates workers’ individual needs, promoting workspace personalization. 55
Components of an office space ● ● ● ● ● ●
Meeting spaces Data Storage area Work area Breakout space Conference rooms Services
Furniture elements: Seating elements Work desks | Storage Space divider screens ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Circulation Flow Communication patterns Volumetric divisions Physical and virtual connectivity Interconnections Daylight conditions Ventilation
Space distribution
Services
Office Space Spatial Qualities
Networking system
HVAC Plumbing Lighting- Electrical
● ● ●
● ● ● ● ●
Wireless connectivity Data storage servers LAN Technological controls Data Backup servers
Appliances
Work devices: Computers, laptops Smart boards, screens Printers, Xerox etc. 56
Thank you...