Forward

This collection presents snapshots of our contemporary work environments through an examination of the ways in which architecture and design have conceived the idea of the office and other workspaces since the turn of the 21st Century.

The office is an architectural type that is as politically, economically, and culturally charged, as it is technical and tectonic. With technological advancements and changes in labor practices, the workplace was liberated from the domestic realm, causing a spatial, programmatic, and ideological schism. This strict delineation of office and house became a key concept of modernization that motivated architecture and urban design practices. Currently, there is a paradigm shift that reunites these two environments, creating a gray zone between the spaces occupied by domesticity and work.

Current workspaces demonstrate an evolution of the workstyle that no longer ties the program of work to the building type of the office. Today’s creative offices expand the definition of the workplace from a site of management and production to a place fostering creativity, communication, and community. Meanwhile, emerging coworking spaces act as a catalyst stimulating new programmatic relationships with a new building type that has yet to be determined.

These essays demonstrate our contemporary understanding of the workplace and how it can produce new value in contemporary society.

Hitoshi Abe

Professor, Dept. of Architecture and Urban Design, UCLA Director, xLAB Research Group, UCLA Chair for Contemporary Japan Study, Terasaki Center, UCLA