LOOKING BACK A DECADE OR SO, THE OFFICE WAS EVOLVING INTO A MORE COLLABORATIVE SITE. YET, THE CORE OF THE WORKDAY IS OFTEN FOCUSED WORK, WHICH TYPICALLY TAKES PLACE AT A DESK, WORKBENCH, OR INDIVIDUAL WORKSTATION. IN AN IDEAL WORLD, EACH PERSON’S WORKSPACE ENABLES THE WORK THAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN THERE. PREFERABLY, THE CHAIR, DESK AND LAMP ADJUST TO FIT THE PERSON AND THE JOB. THE ARRANGEMENT OF SURFACES AND STORAGE PERMITS A SEAMLESS MOVEMENT FROM ONE TASK TO THE NEXT. AND THE WORKER HAS SOME MEANS OF MANAGING DISTRACTIONS—NOISE, CLUTTER AND DISCOMFORT —THAT CAN IMPAIR HOW WEL L ONE PERFORMS.
Work environments are as various as men and women at work, but certain features appear to be vital to sustaining concentration and enabling productivity. Thermal comfort, good air quality, a supportive seat and lighting strategies that illuminate without creating glare or shadows are basic and essential. Practical design details—like a handy place to store a backpack and easy access to power outlets—also help to minimize the distraction of clutter or subliminal anxiety about the dwindling battery of a laptop.
Some measure of acoustic control is also key to staying on task. Excess noise is an irritant at all times and especially so deep in the “zone” of analyzing and solving a problem on deadline. Those who have a private office can close the door and switch off the phone. In an open space, the availability of barriers to sound—like acoustic screens—help give users a sense of authority over their personal space. Equally, activity in peripheral vision prompts us to glance up as a coworker passes by or stands up to adjust a desk. Mobile screens and adjustable desktop screens can mitigate such distraction and also minimize exposure to interruption, again enhancing a sense of control. Continual stimulation and constant interruption can lead to fatigue and burnout.
International engineering firm, Glumac, employed several creative strategies to enable worker performance in its Shanghai office, a 10,000-square-foot space set in a 1912 building designed by Louis Sullivan. Glumac employees work in a sunny, open plan office where noise is muffled by carpet patterned with organic forms resembling the flow of water or the evanescent forms of cirrus clouds. A Kvadrat cloud installation, created by Paris-based designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, further mitigates noise with green, white, gray and black acoustic panels that climb up the walls and across the ceiling. The striking installation absorbs sound that would otherwise reverberate throughout the space.