The National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesa Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, was designed in the 1960s by I. M. Pei.
Photographer: Iwan Baan. Courtesy of TASCHEN.
What Does an Office Mean? Two Architects Discuss
Technology has transformed the contours of our workspaces. The authors of a new book spanning 50 years of design history explain how.
Is an office a jail, a playpen, a living room or a “container for occupational distraction”?
It’s a question long debated by the architects who shape the spaces where many modern laborers spend their days. Some answers can be found by tracing iconic work environments of the last 50 years: from the sprawling and modular IBM office park of the late ’60s to the high-ceilinged TBWA\Chiat\Day advertising loft of the ’90s, from Hugh Hefner’s multi-purpose bedroom to influencers’ ring-lit content mansions, from the auto-centric modernist insurance complex to the dusty domes of Arizona’s commune-like Arcosanti.