A Tablecloth (Part I)

Evolution of office spaces

Office, as we often call it, is an interesting species of space. You must be familiar enough with it, but in our opinion, you must also be unfamiliar enough with it, believe it or not, to try and answer these questions:

• Do people sit in the office from the beginning?
• Why would we want to lock ourselves in an office space that is closed off from light and ventilation?
• What was in an office space before the advent of office furniture?

Office is interesting because of its evolution. It began as a tablecloth for transcribing prayers and has evolved into a type of planning, architectural and interior functionality that is now pervasive in cities over a span of eight centuries, an evolution that can be summarized as a variation on the alternation between evolution and revolution. For the most part, it has continued to 'evolve' in response to leaner productivity, while at a few points in history it has been forced to change in response to each 'revolution' in technology.

Nowadays, it is easy to define Office as a space where many people gather and provide productivity. However, in the initial stage, the driving force for the development of this spatial form came from people's demand for "information" processing, and the changes in information transmission, production and creation constantly put new demands on the Office as a spatial form. The changes in information transfer, production and creation continue to place new demands on the Office as a spatial form.

Through the dimension of "information", we try to sort out the reasons behind each "change" and its essential impact on the office space. Then we stand in the long river of history to imagine and hypothesize how the current technological changes will change the office space design in the foreseeable future.

Office 1.0 birth edition

Transfer of information: tablecloths and standing copybooks

The emergence of office space can be traced back to the medieval monasteries more than 800 years ago, when monks of high social status created the most primitive office space based on the need to transmit information, to transmit and translate classical books, and to carry on and preserve history and culture. In a quiet place in the church, a table and books were set up, and the study and transcription of books and prayers began. The earliest English word for office is bureau, which appeared in the 13th century from the Latin word burra, referring specifically to the rough tablecloth that preceded the table and books. Don't underestimate this tablecloth, because of it, there is a physical vehicle that provides the possibility of transferring information, which in turn creates a space. This space is the prototype of the Office.

It is interesting to note that the standing office, which is often advocated nowadays, is exactly the way people used to write in the earliest days when the office was in its infancy.

As medieval society changed in the thirteenth century, academia was born and philosophy was separated from faith. At this time, the establishment of schools and universities, the creation of academic centers, and the demand for large quantities of books drove the creation of more places for the transmission of information, and the need for more space for transcribing and transmitting information led to an increasing demand for "office space". At the same time, the emergence of professional writers was the main reason for the formation of independent office space.

Office version 2.0

Independent generation of information: computational and reflective research

During the Renaissance, the spirit of innovation brought about great improvements in crafts, technology, trade and education, giving rise to more administrative, legal and governmental obligations, and with it the emergence of professions such as accountants, bankers and lawyers, and a gradual increase in the commercial activity of bookkeeping, written correspondence, calculations and estimations. Correspondingly, the tools of information transfer became quills, ink, paper, abacuses, measuring instruments and sealing wax. As a result, the space that carries these tools and behaviors is not only used for recording and transmitting information, but also for providing a place for the production of information, for calculating and writing activities, and for personal reflection and research.

At this time, people and space existed separately and independently of each other: the emergence of the early office created informal, unstructured, casual and simple workspaces for these new professions and behaviors. It is important to mention here that office furniture made its first formal appearance in office space, in the form of the stationary + chair combination of desk and chair, which for the first time became the center of the office space place. People finally began to get used to sitting down to work, but at this stage, the office is still only a kind of people in the daily life of the stage behavior, in addition to the prescribed time, people are not willing to stay indoors fixed work.

Office version 3.0

Creation and abstraction of information: forced to accept closed spaces and limited lighting

After the Enlightenment, the shift from crafts to industrialization and the increase and transformation of society from mere commerce to multiple occupations increased the demand for education. At the same time the abundance of productivity gave rise to more occupations generating changes, and the concern for increased productivity became more and more urgent. This requires someone who can not only generate information, but also focus on methods, logic and systems work to maximize productivity by abstracting information. It is this process of abstracting information that has given rise to the independent office space.

The creation of independent spaces very instinctively constrains human thought patterns, perception patterns and deduction patterns. Office space has also transformed from an indoor space used within a specified period of time, as in phase 2.0, to an all-indoor, all-time space. People have been forced to accept this shift and gradually adapt to it. This is a very painful process, because people not only have to adapt to this closed and limited lighting, but also have to change their own behavior: start long-term sitting office. From this point on, the design of the office space is defined by a strict routine and becomes organized and disciplined.

Office version 4.0

Mass production of information and matter: man is machine

After the outbreak of the Industrial Revolution, business roared to prosperity. The deepening industrialization and electrification of human society also had a profound impact on the development of office space. Assembly line production emerged as a result of the meticulous division of labor, a large number of laborers and mass production. The size and organization of office space also changed because of the production of assembly line. In factories, management space, auxiliary management space, production space, and other levels and organizational methods emerged because of the need for management, and the organizational structure and level of information also emerged. Office space became a place for mass production of information and materials, and two types of office models were formed.

The first model, which economists and management scientists see as an extension of the "production plant", encourages the spirit of the Industrial Revolution and calls for people to work like machines. This mode of cooperation between man and machine has become the office model that is still in use today, except that man has more and more control over the machine, while the machine itself is becoming more and more productive. The second model is called static space, which is a static sit-stand office model established by female typists. Female typists are the prototype of white-collar workers, who are required to type a specified number of words per hour, a mechanical and repetitive labor that makes people completely lose their freedom.

The phase of Office 4.0 is crucial for the impact of the current office space form. The reason for this is the emergence of a new species in this phase of office space - the machine. In the subsequent development, you will see that the status of the machine is getting higher and higher, and gradually become the protagonist of this type of space, so that today even formed the "iron machine, running water employees" situation.

Office version 5.0

Centralized storage and recall reorganization of information: breaking down the boundaries of compartments

After the great wave of the industrial revolution, the office space has gradually become a "centralized convergence" of information: on a typical desk, there will be typewriters, filing cabinets, punch cards and other types of information processors. The centralized office space with desks and chairs has become a physical vehicle for organizing, archiving, reorganizing, and recalling large amounts of information.

If we look at this period as a centralized system of information, then you can easily understand two key elements of the current office space: the basic office unit (vertical information system) + the open layout (horizontal information system). The basic unit is a minimum node of information processing, in this node there will be all kinds of information processing tools and media, such as filing cabinets, telephones, card catalogs, typewriters, card machines, etc., which defines the basic unit of the office in the early twentieth century, and the combination of the basic unit will be formed in the office space. The whole office space formed a vertical information system with the main purpose of organizing and integrating (Index).

On the other hand, because information needs not only vertical organization and storage, but also horizontal call and reorganization, so the mode of collaborative work gradually appeared and began to reflect higher efficiency. The basic office unit was subsequently broken, the formation of large open office, where the information system more horizontal transmission, and a large number of such as the United States of America, New York's Bloomberg Building, such as in the world of office design history of the open office classics.

Eight questions to ask the visible future

Looking back at the evolution of office space, it can be found that it has been driven by changes in the mode of production and delivery of information as well as the type of information, and its ultimate goal is to improve productivity. Based on this logic, and on the background environment of another information revolution, we cannot help but think, in the face of an even larger and smarter information complex, will our answer to office space design be the same as it was fifty years ago? So, we put forward eight possible assumptions and questions, with you to think about the visible future, office space design will go where.

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Read More: (R)evolution of Office Spaces