Most office workers relish the opportunity to personalize their cubicles, but some people also feel restricted in those small spaces. What happens if employees get the run of the entire office, but no particular space of their own?
The New York office of the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), a consulting firm, converted to such a setup recently. Its 250 employees were each given a locker, a laptop, and told to get to work anywhere they wanted.
According to Business Insider, this is the largest-scale implementation of activity-based working in the U.S. Activity-based working is a Dutch theory about office work, which states that workers will be happiest and most productive if they can work in a variety of different spaces based on the task they're performing.
For instance, you might start out the day collaborating with co-workers in a conference space and then move to a more-private space to work on your own.
The space was also engineered to create better space for hosting clients. Now, instead of taking clients out to restaurants, GLG can entertain them in their actual offices.
When Business Insider went into the office, they spoke with a few of the employees about how the new layout is working.
"I definitely find that moving around helps me get work done," systems analyst Mike Martin said. "I feel like I'm a dynamic person who can work in a loud environment, but there are definitely days where you want to duck off into a telephone booth and sort of dive into the task at hand."
It seems that employees were worried about the change, and about being deprived of the ability to personalize their offices. But Clive Wilkinson, who designed the new space, posits that the need for personalization comes from the fact that workplaces have historically been less than comfortable. By creating a more welcoming space, he said, it removes the need to decorate the office.
Personal items are stored in employees' individual lockers, which are organized into clusters by departments.
GLG's human resources department reports that the biggest complaint they've had so far is from women who don't know where to put the extra pairs of shoes they change in and out of during the day, and this problem was solved by the allocation of a closet for footwear.
Check out this video from GLG about the new space
Related Stories
| Mar 29, 2013
Detroit's historic Whitney Building to be renovated for hotel, apartments
Detroit's David Whitney Building, a 19-story landmark erected in 1915, will be renovated for an Aloft hotel and apartments.
| Mar 29, 2013
PBS broadcast to highlight '10 Buildings That Changed America'
WTTW Chicago, in partnership with the Society of Architectural Historians, has produced "10 Builidngs That Changed America," a TV show set to air May 12 on PBS.
| Mar 29, 2013
Shenzhen projects halted as Chinese officials find substandard concrete
Construction on multiple projects in Guangdong Province—including the 660-m Ping'an Finance Center—has been halted after inspectors in Shenzhen, China, have found at least 15 local plants producing concrete with unprocessed sea sand, which undermines building stabity.
| Mar 29, 2013
Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee joins Clark Nexsen
Clark Nexsen, PC, headquartered in Norfolk, Va., has announced that the architecture firm Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee (PBC+L) of Raleigh and Asheville, NC, has officially joined Clark Nexsen.
| Mar 29, 2013
Cuningham Group acquires NTD's healthcare practice, expands into key markets
The international design firm Cuningham Group Architecture, Inc. has announced that NTD Healthcare has the joined the company in a strategic expansion. A practice of NTD Architecture, NTD Healthcare joins Cuningham Group with three principals: Wayne Hunter, AIA, NCARB, ACHA and Phillip T. Soule, III, AIA, ACHA in San Diego, along with Maha Abou-Haidar, AIA in Phoenix.
| Mar 27, 2013
Small but mighty: Berkeley public library’s net-zero gem
The Building Team for Berkeley, Calif.’s new 9,500-sf West Branch library aims to achieve net-zero—and possibly net-positive—energy performance with the help of clever passive design techniques.
| Mar 27, 2013
RSMeans cost comparisons: college labs, classrooms, residence halls, student unions
Construction market analysts from RSMeans offer construction costs per square foot for four building types across 25 metro markets.
| Mar 26, 2013
Will Google Glass revolutionize the construction process?
An Australian architect is exploring the benefits of augmented reality in the design and construction process.
| Mar 24, 2013
World's tallest data center opens in New York
Sabey Data Center Properties last week celebrated the completion of the first phase of an adaptive reuse project that will transform the 32-story Verizon Building in Manhattan into a data center facility. When the project is completed, it will be the world's tallest data center.