I'm here working for a new office knocking out some more IDP credit hours for the summer, and I have noticed differences in the way this firm work, from the office I worked in last summer. I have been thinking about the professional studio and how it operates. What makes a healthy environment etc?
So I did a quick design in my head of what I thought a good office would look like, and I came up with a room full of huge round table and laptops...a nomadic office.
I pose this question, who has the most progressive/experimental architecture office? Who has redesigned the professional studio?
It might be interesting to brain storm ideas, hear about what's been done, what's worked, and what's failed.
i've heard of a studio which ran its collaboration online, with people on each coast and overseas. i don't know if this works well since the interaction could be more difficult.
i definately wouldn't say that you would get the "perfect studio" through its design though. it has a lot to do with the people you bring together, and how they interact. i'd work in a paring garage with the right people.
mobius house does rock.
speaking of nomadic offices, wasn't it jersey devil that practiced from an rv and travelled all over the country?
there are several young design firms that have 'principles' scattered between several places in europe and america.. others similarly between america and southeast asia. the internet's made it possible, though as said above, i don't know if it's really a great long term solution. wait and see i suppose.
i've always thought it would be amazing to have a firm on a ship. similar to the rv, getting to travel all over the place, except you'd have to find interns that didn't get sea sick. :)
wasn't it gaetano pesce's offices for chiat/day that had a series of contemplation spaces, living rooms, cafe spaces, etc. - all set up to encourage a nomadic work environment? the idea that if you could plug in anywhere, you'd pick the best place. seems to me i also heard that they retrofitted office space later because there was no privacy, no place to put pictures of your dog, and people were generally getting very ANXIOUS and out of sorts.
other models:
momentum's memory of the online studio collaboration may have been the garofalo/lynn collaboration for the korean presbyterian church - all organized from remote cities, as i remember.
there's also hotelling - a cross between the nomadic model and the private office model in which you check into an office for a period of time and then someone else might have it tomorrow - all scheduled in advance. (i guess you just put your pix of your dog on the desk while you're there or you tape them to the inside of the top of your briefcase?)
I am actually in the position of designing my new office space at the moment.
It is basically a concrete shell, about 17.3m deep/long and 8.7m wide. There is a ceiling height at the front of 5.1m and at the rear of 4.2m.
There is a glass frontage with double glass doors in the middle, and a rear door placed in the middle of the rear wall. There are no windows on the side of the space, but we can make one by punching out a few holes on one side...
Its a pretty big space - I think we will have between 5-7 people working there.
I have a rough sketch design, which basically relies on a black box structure that provides 1 large meeting room accessed by a hidden pivoted door, 1 smaller consulting room, my office and library along the sides. The meeting room will have a nice white wall perfect from beery afternoon PS2 kung-fu fighting.
The other future staff [3d modellers, draughtsman, intern etc] will be based at large tables at the rear of the space. Painting the concrete floor glossy white. Putting in a suspended ceiling offest from the existing ceiling by no more that 400mm to preserve the height. The receptionist has a nice 5m long counter hovering in front of the black box right in front of the door.
The rear has a lunchroom and store.
Maybe I should just post a plan and let you crazy mofo's get to work!
Private workspaces
Communal workspaces
Natural light
Operable windows
Comfortable seating, including a couch or something that reclines.
As I have learned from my current office, flooring is important. Carpeting gets disgusting. And do not specify highly polished black marble for a bathroom floor if you are going to have multiple adjacent stalls. Polished black marble is as good as a mirror and no one wants the intimate view it affords. Sometimes you aren't thinking about deliberately looking away, so you catch a glimpse of your stall-neighbor popping a squat, and you feel insurmountably awkward looking her in the eyes thereafter. Alas. If you are going with high end materials, choose something nonreflective and nonporous!
May 18, 05 1:16 am ·
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Towards a New Studio
I'm here working for a new office knocking out some more IDP credit hours for the summer, and I have noticed differences in the way this firm work, from the office I worked in last summer. I have been thinking about the professional studio and how it operates. What makes a healthy environment etc?
So I did a quick design in my head of what I thought a good office would look like, and I came up with a room full of huge round table and laptops...a nomadic office.
I pose this question, who has the most progressive/experimental architecture office? Who has redesigned the professional studio?
It might be interesting to brain storm ideas, hear about what's been done, what's worked, and what's failed.
i've heard of a studio which ran its collaboration online, with people on each coast and overseas. i don't know if this works well since the interaction could be more difficult.
i definately wouldn't say that you would get the "perfect studio" through its design though. it has a lot to do with the people you bring together, and how they interact. i'd work in a paring garage with the right people.
parking garage, sorry.
i've always thought the mobius house was a good model for a work environment
mobius house does rock.
speaking of nomadic offices, wasn't it jersey devil that practiced from an rv and travelled all over the country?
there are several young design firms that have 'principles' scattered between several places in europe and america.. others similarly between america and southeast asia. the internet's made it possible, though as said above, i don't know if it's really a great long term solution. wait and see i suppose.
i've always thought it would be amazing to have a firm on a ship. similar to the rv, getting to travel all over the place, except you'd have to find interns that didn't get sea sick. :)
wasn't it gaetano pesce's offices for chiat/day that had a series of contemplation spaces, living rooms, cafe spaces, etc. - all set up to encourage a nomadic work environment? the idea that if you could plug in anywhere, you'd pick the best place. seems to me i also heard that they retrofitted office space later because there was no privacy, no place to put pictures of your dog, and people were generally getting very ANXIOUS and out of sorts.
other models:
momentum's memory of the online studio collaboration may have been the garofalo/lynn collaboration for the korean presbyterian church - all organized from remote cities, as i remember.
there's also hotelling - a cross between the nomadic model and the private office model in which you check into an office for a period of time and then someone else might have it tomorrow - all scheduled in advance. (i guess you just put your pix of your dog on the desk while you're there or you tape them to the inside of the top of your briefcase?)
i'm personally partial to the home office.
I am actually in the position of designing my new office space at the moment.
It is basically a concrete shell, about 17.3m deep/long and 8.7m wide. There is a ceiling height at the front of 5.1m and at the rear of 4.2m.
There is a glass frontage with double glass doors in the middle, and a rear door placed in the middle of the rear wall. There are no windows on the side of the space, but we can make one by punching out a few holes on one side...
Its a pretty big space - I think we will have between 5-7 people working there.
I have a rough sketch design, which basically relies on a black box structure that provides 1 large meeting room accessed by a hidden pivoted door, 1 smaller consulting room, my office and library along the sides. The meeting room will have a nice white wall perfect from beery afternoon PS2 kung-fu fighting.
The other future staff [3d modellers, draughtsman, intern etc] will be based at large tables at the rear of the space. Painting the concrete floor glossy white. Putting in a suspended ceiling offest from the existing ceiling by no more that 400mm to preserve the height. The receptionist has a nice 5m long counter hovering in front of the black box right in front of the door.
The rear has a lunchroom and store.
Maybe I should just post a plan and let you crazy mofo's get to work!
Basic requirements:
Private workspaces
Communal workspaces
Natural light
Operable windows
Comfortable seating, including a couch or something that reclines.
As I have learned from my current office, flooring is important. Carpeting gets disgusting. And do not specify highly polished black marble for a bathroom floor if you are going to have multiple adjacent stalls. Polished black marble is as good as a mirror and no one wants the intimate view it affords. Sometimes you aren't thinking about deliberately looking away, so you catch a glimpse of your stall-neighbor popping a squat, and you feel insurmountably awkward looking her in the eyes thereafter. Alas. If you are going with high end materials, choose something nonreflective and nonporous!
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