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Flexible Office Space

Opening context:
Self-Governing Workshops and Offices, Office Connections, Intimacy Gradient, Common Areas at the Heart

Conflict

Is it possible to create a kind of space which is specifically tuned to the needs of people working, and yet capable of an infinite number of various arrangements and combinations within it?

Resolution

Lay out the office space as wings of open space, with free standing columns around their edges, so they define half-private and common spaces opening into one another. Set down enough columns so that people can fill them in over the years, in many different ways — but always in a semipermanent fashion.

If you happen to know the working group before you build the space, then make it more like a house, more closely tailored to their needs. In either case, create a variety of space throughout the office — comparable in variety to the different sizes and kinds of space in a large old house.

Closing context:
Light on Two Sides of Every Room, Ceiling Height Variety, Column Place, Small Work Groups, Half-Private Office