The Future of the Office

Abstract

Manifold technological changes that are affecting the office, its ways of operation, and the behavior of office workers are surveyed. Various possible health symptoms arising from the increasingly widespread use of computers and their terminals, as well as suggested methods of avoiding these symptoms, are discussed. The need for flexibility and adjustability in interior furnishings is examined. The progressive miniaturization of computers and their components, as well as the effects of this development, are sketched. The emerging technology of video teleconferencing and some of the side effects stemming from this technology are related to the future of the office. The beginnings of changes in the geographic locations of the office, as well as the attendant modifications in human behavior stemming from locational changes, are probed. Evidence of growing office worker dissatisfaction with present office environments is reviewed. Indications of the desires of office workers to affect the design of their own workplaces are scrutinized, and a successful participatory design project in the office is briefly noted as a possible partial solution to some of the problems considered above.