74
WORKSPIRIT
74
WORKSPIRIT
Most of our clients require enclosed concentration rooms, they ask for a door that you can shut. For Vitra it
was easy, we just had a curtain to signify “Do Not Disturb.” In our offi ce we can put on hats that we bought
in Uzbekistan if we don‘t want to be disturbed, or to demonstrate the need for quiet.
NC
A lot of companies would consider that a real luxury – to offer people two or three different spaces to work, often it is just “Here is your desk,
get on with it.”
SP That’s another story. The only way you can really offer that freedom is for people to let go
of their individual desks, in order to open up space for more varied work environments. I think it is just really
important to plan accidental social interactions, particularly for introverts who have a lot to contribute, but
who can hide themselves away in large offi ces. You have to think horizontally as well as vertically and create
spaces where people naturally meet other people for the cross-fertilisation of ideas. The problem is that de-
signers are creating separated specifi c zones. This area is where you are going to hang out, this area is where
you are going to relax, this area is where you are allowed to talk, prescribed spaces and then the rest is the
factory zone, the rows and rows and rows of desks, the soulless furniture graveyard.
NC
Do you think there is a danger that people will resent an offi ce environment that presumes to be a something like home, or even apes the
“third space” faux domesticity of coffee shops?
SP To us, it is about a human space that equally supports and makes sense to the individual and
the organisation. It’s an environment that allows the individual to work within an understandable scale and
landscape, as well as being light, airy, organised and variable. One that offers a variety of possibilities.
But creating a human workplace isn’t a cynical thing to keep people in the offi ce. Often, longer hours don’t mean
that you are more productive. You don’t have to get locked into the 9-5 thing and being at your desk all the time
to prove you are being productive. It is much more about creating a human landscape. Just think of those Amer-
ican offi ces, just rows and rows of desks, where even the fl owers wither as they enter the space.
