Artifacts of the New Workplace
What is Aesthetics?
As a field of study, aesthetics
involves ways of seeing, and
sensing the world, as well as
new and novel interpretations.
From its philosophical roots
in ancient Greece, where
thinkers like Socrates and
Plato considered the inherent
meaning and beauty of things,
aesthetics is also used to
refer to the critique of art and
design.
Excerpt from What is Aesthetics?
By Paul Ford
A good place to take note of the change is with the evolving
workplace artifacts. Underlying the adoption of more open, and
more public work settings is a new theory of innovation and
creativity.
In essence, this aesthetic is based on a few key ideas, supported
by psychological and design research:
Untethered Workplaces
Creating chance interactions among people will lead to a higher
likelihood of innovative ideas. So organizing office space to create
more serendipity has led to many companies doing away with cubicles,
fixed offices and desks, and other remnants of the 20th century
company.
Alternate Work Environments
To foster productivity in more open office settings, a spectrum of
different kinds of work spaces is increasingly becoming the norm. This
includes more noisy informal café areas with food and music, work
rooms dedicated to project teams over the course of some activity, and
small alcoves at the sides of larger work areas where groups of two or
three can step aside for a few minutes without the overhead of finding
a conference room.
Hoteling
Since more people are working out-of-the office, offices can become
smaller, and based on ‘hoteling’ principles: reserving rooms, desks, and
other resources on an as-needed basis.
Mobility + BYOD
And of course, this relies on mobile technologies of ult Ʉ