The office and the city: twelve propositions
For Frank Duffy, specialist of the development of work spaces, the revolution of New Technologies of Information and Communication requires rethinking the office building as an architectural style and urban component, to conceive of a profound design mutation similar to that which accompanied the industrial revolution. Co-location and the synchronization of key 19th century factories and 20th century offices are no longer indispensable in their fluid exchange of information and interactive tasks specific to careers in the knowledge economy. But the rise of the virtual world does not reduce the the importance of real contacts. The city of the future will be focused on interaction and socialization. Office buildings must mutate into smaller areas, spaces should be more flexible, and more generous circulation space should be implemented to encourage serendipitous meetings. The selection of properties, currently dominated by a logical transaction, is still too far from these reflections on the uses and functions of space. Frank Duffy is a British architect and founder of DEGW, an international architecture, design and urban planning agency, specialized in workplace strategy and office design.
