CREJ

/ BUILDING DIALOGUE / DECEMBER 2017

ver the past 18

months, we’ve seen

several articles in

various publications hint-

ing that the “open space of-

fice concept” is a failed or

failing experiment. They cite

cultural challenges, poor work

environment and productivity

decreases as a result of the use

of this concept. Our experience,

however, is that open office is an

excellent concept to use, depend-

ing on when and how it’s imple-

mented as a workplace strategy.

To start at the beginning, to-

day’s office space has drastical-

ly changed. Instead of think-

ing about a sea of workstations

depicted in movies like “9 to 5”

and “Office Space,” today’s office

might be seen as more of an in-

tegration of layered neighbor-

hoods serving different functions. Perhaps a bet-

ter name than “open” office would be “blended”

office. That’s because today we can offer a host of

new spaces that better fit the way we live and work

in today’s office environment. In addition, we can

layer in older workplace strategies that still remain

relevant today. To understand today’s modern of-

fice dialogue, it’s helpful to start with an appreci-

ation of what is powering this change. The largest

driving factor is mobile technology.

While laptops were once a luxury item with lim-

ited computing power compared to the desktop

counterparts of their day, we all know that today’s

mobility has matured. Between laptops, tablets and

hybrids like the Surface platform, mobility is both

affordable and fully functional, offering more pow-

er than most professionals need for just emailing,

documenting, sharing and accessing the web. So in

addition to traditional workplace strategies, today’s

portable devices create additional design opportu-

nities to enhance a space that weren’t possible in

the past.

Some of these spaces include small “huddle”

rooms for two or three staff to gather and produce

work together around a shared monitor. These

flexible spaces allow for both privacy and acous-

tic isolation away from more public workstations.

Similarly, soft-seating conference areas can support

work with clients who are dealing with sensitive in-

formation or are in need of a more nurturing space

to interact, while positioning them near an easily

accessed screen. We also have started adapting the

idea of the traditional phone booth for making per-

sonal mobile calls in the office suite, or for one-per-

Martin Goldstein

Principal

Architect,

Venture Ar-

chitecture

ELEMENTS

Open Office

Is Open Office Dead? Not if Properly Crafted.

Soft seating blends with other, more traditional forms of workplace

concepts.

The traditional phone booth is adapted for mak-

ing personal mobile calls in the office suite, or for

one-person business calls requiring louder volume.

Coffee shop-styled spaces and high-top collabora-

tion tables all enable different types of individual

and team-oriented work to occur.