Making the modern office work harder

Total Office Design: 50 Contemporary Workplaces
by Kerstin Zumstein
& Helen Parton
Thames & Hudson,
July 2011, 320pp, £24.95

This is an inspiring and stimulating book for anyone interested in the design of modern and innovative workplace interiors. Featuring 50 projects organised into three categories according to size, it is manageably proportioned in size, and graphically seductive. Working through this compendium of some of the best and most interesting working environments across the globe is a pleasure.

The nature of offices is changing considerably as architects and interior designers deal with both increasing environmental requirements and ongoing changes in how, where and when we work. In the 1990s the work and play approach saw many offices treated almost as an extension of the home with a domestic design language.

At the opposite end of the spectrum we saw the ostentation and excess of many corporate offices. Today the design of the workplace is more flexible and informal, with less focus on how much you spend and more on how you spend it.

This book provides a comprehensive summary of design approaches, all of which seek to provide office and working environments that will inspire and motivate staff and impress clients. A broad range of working environments is shown, from small studio spaces (up to 500sq m) and medium size offices (501-2,200sq m), to staff canteens and international headquarters in the large category (over 2,200sq m).

Creative, intelligent and witty design solutions delivering fun and sophisticated working environments range from Selgas Cano’s translucent Plexiglas tubular building, set in a woodland clearing near Madrid, to the entirely wooden construction of the new headquarters for the timber processing company Mayr-Melnhof in Leoben, Austria, by Nussmüller Architekten, which showcases the company’s technological ability.

A temporary office fit-out in Amsterdam by Alrik Koudenburg for the creative services agency Nothing, made entirely from industrial cardboard, proves that shoestring budgets offer no limit to the enthusiasm and creative potential that any good architect or interior designer should offer.

Each project is typically set out on four to eight pages featuring good quality images carefully illustrating the range of working spaces and the relationship between these. Large-scale annotated plans, sections and models provide a clear understanding of the organisational relationships between spaces and the strategy governing the respective design approach. A page of text describes each project in adequate detail and provides a good insight into the design concept.

To be sure, this is not the definitive bible on office design, but it is certainly an interesting and provocative snapshot of our efforts to respond to the fast-changing demands expected of our working environments today.

Jose Esteves de Matos is director of De Matos Ryan