A Decade In Design

摘要

"I am doing thisrninterview from an Eames chair in my dining room and am admiring my garden whilst I talk. I am working but nobody need know where I am. Tomorrow I could be working from an airport lounge. When this interview is over I am going for a quick swim, but after that I'll be back at my virtual desk."rnRichard Beastall's description of the Friday afternoon on which the Bennett Interior Design principal gave this publication an interview encapsulates the way we work now. In 2008, the office is anywhere you can plug in your laptop and get a reception on your phone - ideally with an iced tea in whichever hand isn't holding said phone. In this mobile work-from-the-bistro world, technology is, quite simply, king.rnWireless technology might mean many of us work remotely for much of the week, but when we do touch down in the office we expect it to be as comfortable as the living room in which we closed yesterday's deal. "Precisely because we spend less time there, the office needs to inculcate a sense of belonging, to almost feel like a club," says Beastall. "For this reason the modern office has desks, but it also has shared benches and break-out areas with soft expensive sofas. It is all designed with the express intention of making employees feel comfortable and valued."rnBut it wasn't always thus. Ten years ago, workers didn't come to the office to hang out, drink lattes and schmooze on B&B Italia sofas. "It was a different world - I clearly remember the arrival of the fax machine," says HOK head of interiors, Aileen Asher.