The Office uncovers the issues behind the design of London’s workplaces. Asking the nation’s work-force to have their say on what their really think of the office they spend nine to five in, it will reveal the latest ideas in office organisation and investigate the economic imperative and human impact of good design.

Does the well-designed workplace make us more efficient? Are companies in smart new offices more profitable? Does working in an architectural showpiece make work any more easy or enjoyable? Are developers taking the changing nature of work into account when they design new office buildings? These are some of the questions that will be investigated in The Office.

How is office work changing? Where should we be doing it? Is nine-to-five an outdated concept in the age of the laptop, mobile phone, blackberry®, Bluetooth and WiFi? Today, we can communicate and carry out office tasks from the beach, Starbucks or under a tree in our local park. By all accounts, the idea of staff converging on one office space at one time should be a thing of the past, yet millions of workers continue to do so. Technological, demographic, social, environmental and security issues affect what our workspaces are like; they raise questions about whether the demand for new office space will continue and how developers should react to changing trends.

This insight provides a glimpse into what some innovative companies are doing today and where the new workplace of the future is heading.

Introduction
How is office work changing?

History
An overview of the evolution of the workplaces throughout time.

Communication revolution
And the effects on both the physical office and our perceptions of where it is and how it operate.

New ways of working
From technology and location to sustainability and security.

Projects
A range of recent office designs illustrating the shift from the predominantly static desk-oriented environments, to group spaces, public amenity areas and drop in zones. 

Published September 2006
39 Pages