Arbeits- (um) -weiten

摘要

In the world of work terms such as identity, freedom, and resilience are rarely discussed. Do they really have anything to do with "work"? Why should we "identify" with the way of earning a living that is our lot? How can there be any "freedom" if we are locked into a rigid grid of time and production? Why should the working environment and the business model offered by our firm interest us? The answer is: because in the digital era this is possible and aids sustainable human development. In developed societies of the 21st century the era of alienating wage labour and miserable industrial work should be a thing of the past. In a free society a sound professional training that we have chosen ourselves should enable us to engage in those activities that interest us and consequently to "produce" in a far more efficient way. A critical examination of the work situation and business model by all workers is also necessary and aids a company's resilience. To what extent is this much desired brave new world reflected in real buildings? We show this on the following pages: the local headquarters for a software developer is an elegant timber building that is docked on one side to a loosely organised business zone but on the other looks onto a meadow with grazing cows. Meetings held in the arena made of wood and concrete with an unobstructed view of greenery probably do not feel like "work" in the traditional sense. Nor does the "Maison du Technopoele" in Normandy feel like a banal office buildingfor start-ups. But more like a contemporary sacred building constructed of striking local materials that celebrates communal efforts. The regional headquarters for a building services company in Vorarlberg mutated from a "workshop box" to a "noble barn". And although the elegant "Sunken Design Studio" in Slovenia stands on a narrow strip of garden of a modest row house it offers all that is needed for the development of advanced industrial design. None of these projects seems like an unfriendly "place of work", all of them make it possible to see "work" as a cheerfully used time of life with good prospects.