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As the world of work changes from an industrial economy to a knowledge-led one, the design of the office environment is struggling to keep pace. The traditional office derived its template from the factory floor, but time-and-motion within a supervised hierarchy is no longer relevant for much of the work we do today. Known as knowledge work, this type of work depends on applying theoretical knowledge and learning in a culture of collaboration and initiative. As such, it requires a much more flexible approach.
Today's knowledge workers are more mobile, better educated and often older, having acquired their knowledge over a long career. Four out of ten European workers can be considered a knowledge worker, but not enough is known about the kind of workspaces that best support knowledge work. This project, in partnership with Bene, a leading European manufacturer of office furniture, set out to explore new design thinking in this area.
In order to design for knowledge workers, it was first necessary to learn more about them. Through an initial literature search and interviews with a variety of knowledge workers at different levels of age and experience, we identified four key typologies. Each of these typologies interact with the office in a different way: the 'Anchor' is desk based; the 'Connector' moves around within the building; the 'Gatherer' makes journeys away from the office but always returns; and the 'Navigator' is rarely in the office at all, working for the organisation at arm's length.
Through site visits, including the BBC in London, a further 12 in-depth interviews and key meetings with facilities and human resources managers, we were able to get a better insight into the needs of the four knowledge worker typologies.
For the Anchor, comfort remains the most important issue; for the Connector, more adaptable types of furniture are needed; the Gatherer wants more choice and control of his or her environment; and the Navigator requires a more welcoming alternative to the standard hot-desk provided on the occasions they visit the building. All share a concern over concentration - although the findings support the view that there cannot be one 'standard' design for all knowledge workers.
Concept products have been developed in response to these needs. Themed Partitions create hideaway spaces for quiet concentration; Project Wall provides an impromptu workshop space where you are allowed to make a mess; Speaker Box is a small cave-like room designed for one-to-one video calls to roaming Navigators. These concepts and others are illustrated in the context of a fictional office layout in a short animated film. In the film we follow each group through their workspace. We watch as they demonstrate how these products could be used. The layout has also been designed to accommodate the four typologies, demonstrating the overlapping use of space as each of the characters pass through and conveying the different settings they need for different activities during the working day.
The project will be used to inform Bene's future product development and marketing strategy. The study will be disseminated this autumn at the Vienna Design Festival on 8 October and at the WorkTech London conference at the British Library on 23 November 2009. Although knowledge workers today operate in ways increasingly independent of location, the study asserts the office building as the magnet that continually draws them back, fleshing out typical players in the knowledge economy and the workspaces they will require in the future.
