Working it out, space wise

In the 1950s, aesthetics were sought to be combined with flexibility and low maintenance. At the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, employees worked at large tables in an airy room loosely sectioned by designer Florence Knoll8217;s colourful partitions. Way back then company president Frazer Wilde thought it fit not only to move out to the suburbs but also to provide amenities such as a bowling alley, cafeteria, dry cleaner, bank and beauty salon on the premises. Flowers and trees added to the peaceful ambience.

The sixties were a time of technology and lofty ambitions. At the NASA Mission Control in Houston, the smell of coffee, stale pizza and cigarette smoke hung like a blanket over the men that controlled the Apollo 11 lunar landing. The experience was like sitting in a hotel lobby, claims a former flight director 8212; 8216;8216;There was a constant hum: communications, air conditioning units, the electronics in the consoles.8217;8217; The average age was 26, because then, as well as now, it was the young that had the technological knowledge that the programme needed.

In the seventies, glamour and illusion took centre stage. The Halston Studio and Showroom in New York for example was a one floor space littered with mirrors that created a sense of dislocation. Employees amused themselves by watching messengers trying to find their way out of the office. The space was also amenable to instant transformation with temporary walls that could be moved aside for a fashion show and put back again to recreate an office.

Wall Street set the tone for the eighties. The trading floor at Merrill Lynch8217;s World Financial Centre probably typified the frenzy of the times. Traders sat side by side in long rows of desks. Though the numbers and the visibility created an impersonality it was more than made up, reminisces a former employee, by the 8216;8216;action, the noise, the fever of anticipation8230; the buzz coming from the people not the machines8217;8217;.

By the time the nineties came along the world had changed in a significant way. The arrival of the internet, it was thought, would do away with the need for a conventional office. Gaetano Pesce8217;s design for the Chiat/Day office overlooking New York8217;s East River was full of colour and blunt edges. The idea behind the 8216;virtue office8217;, as it was called, was that people did not have fixed places but came to work when they needed to, sat anywhere and opened up their laptops. Though ideal in concept, it evoked mixed feelings particularly from those used to a more conventional approach.

And finally for first decade of the new millennium. The Home Shopping Network HSN Customer Centre in Florida is a forest of small open cubicles each equipped with a computer, keyboard, telephone headset and paper. There is no view, no aesthetic distractions, just some television screens and publicity banners. Sadly, the office of the present is the ugliest of them all.

Workplaces have changed in India, too, from the time people sat on gaddas and transacted business to today8217;s efficient open cubicle approach. But the swift pace of change is going to require radical innovations. In Mumbai, for instance, outsourcing by large companies has meant that a segment of work has moved out of the traditional business districts and is being conducted in small, makeshift offices in residential areas. The increasing number of people working partially from home and the large mobile sales force seems to make something like the 1990s virtual office, maybe even several of them scattered geographically, a tempting option.

Then there are other factors. Like the need to remove hierarchical divisions. Proctor038;Gamble8217;s new office in North Mumbai is a truly open office with no private cabins for managers and equal workspace for all. Protecting the environment 8212; a huge fad in the West for corporate houses at the moment 8212; will probably be a growing trend in the near future. Not that workers will be spoilt for choice. As a customer service rep at HSN says: 8216;8216;What is the best part of my job? I don8217;t know 8230; I8217;m happy I8217;ve got a job.8217;8217;