Future office prototype

REPORT CONERSNING CONERSNING FUTURE FUTURE REPORT

A WORKBOOK FOR CONCERNING FUTURE

GOLDSMITHS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON MA DESIGN CRITICAL PRACTICE MODULE: CONCERNING FUTURE MODULE LEADER: TERENCE ROSENBERG JOSEPH POPPER STUDENT NAME: YUCHEN ZHANG STUDENT NUMBER: 33477318

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

HODGE PODGES One pound coin diagram

3

YAWN OF THE FUTURE Ideas in the begining

6

The first mini project: Tools for imaging the future

9

The second mini proejct: Aesthetic Future

12

The third proejct:

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Future Design prototype

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Research Working Patterns Administration pattern Efficiency of operation 22

Summery of the Design

REFERENCES 2

ONE POUND COIN DIAGRAM

to get the manufacturing material?

Etc. Apart from doing the research based on the pound coin itself, I also did some search on UK currency policy. Besides using coins as one of the payment ways, what are the other payments at the present and how do these payment work? Who de-

The object I chose for this project

signed the pound coin every year

is a one pound coin. I started with

and what are the symbolic meaning

making a mind map and think ex-

of it? What does Royal Mint do?

tensively about how many different

After that I did the research based

aspect I can think of with a pound

on each questions and tried to find

coin. Then I wrote a list of ques-

the relations among these questions

tions:

and researches.

Where does the pound coin come

By researching every aspect of one

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from?

single object, I understand the

What is the history of the pound

object with its own story. Then I

coin?

decide on the a few points on which

What is it used for?

the further researches can be de-

Who design the coin? How to choose

veloped.

the design?

How many pound coins are made every

One of the new aspects appeared

year and who controls it?

during my studies on the coins.

How does the pound coin made?

I found anti-fake coin technics

What does pound coin made of? Where 3

Fig.1 water consumption from royal mint annul report

are not fully mature. Fake coins

non-renewable material. Though used

circulating in the UK causes a

coins are able to recycle by the

severe trouble to the government

government melting them to make new

and country. To solve this problem,

ones, it will be better if people

the UK government issued a new

can discover a new and renewable

pound coin with new anti-fake tech-

material to make coins.

nics. The reliability of this new anti-fake technics remains to be

More interesting is the findings

tested.

of the images on the coin. Curren-

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cy is a mirror of a country. As The second problem I found during

UK is a constitutional monarchy

the process of making coins is the

country, the image of the Queen

pollution produced by coin making.

reflects the institution of the

First, plenty of water are used

country. The questions based on

to cool down the metal but waste

this knowledge are:

water is not able to recycle. Thus

represent the image of a country?

coin-making costs lots of waste and

What are the viewpoints of people

polluted water every year. Next,

towards this image? I developed

Metal used for coin making is a

further about this point in another 4

How coins

optional module. I did workshops

the data I searched is a bit too

with classmates by inviting people

narrow.

on the street to draw a picture

evidence of pollution during the

or write about their ideal coin.

process of making coins and more

Based on the result of the survey,

supporting information on why we

we designed a kind of combination

should change the metal used. The

pattern on the coin. We made the

reasons for using other materials

designed coin pattern stamp with 3D

to make coins listed in my pres-

printing and let people strip their

entation are not adequate enough to

own coins by using seal waxing.

support a future development.

I should have found more

By inviting people to design their own coin and experience ‘strip’, we

I really enjoy the process of

are trying to see the distinction

doing this project. Throughout the

between the national image and the

research, I learned how to find

individual image. This experiment

questions, do secondary research,

can also be viewed

find more related issues and then

as a posture of

giving the power of discourse back

to develop what I found. I think

to every single citizens.

it helps me to see how a designer

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proceeds his design by seeing more Finally, the outcome for this

and think deeper. This process of

project is a poster based on my

critical thinking provides many

findings.

possibilities for my further career

What I need to do more

is to make more specific divisions

as a designer.

in the research and make it more visualised. A presentation based on one of the concerns was made. It focuses on how to find an alternative material for coin-making, but 5

IDEAS IN THE BEGINNING

This project was a combination of

that they are willing to sacrifice

3 small projects. I teamed up with

their role of being a mom or wife

Randall because we have similar

and in some countries for example

backgrounds and agreed with several

in Norway, the population has been

ideas in the beginning. We started

decreased for several years and

with

the government encourages fami-

3 ideas in the beginning.

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Fig.2 Movie Passenger

Firstly, in the future, there maybe

lies to have more babies. What the

a facility manufacture humans and

future will be if people do not

raise babies until they grow up.

have control of giving birth to

The parents do not have to spend

next generation but government take

time to take care of them. Giving

fully controls of it?

birth to a baby become a manufacturing process. We imagine that a

The second idea is to think about

room has

what plastic surgery will be like

lots of cocoons like in

the movie ‘Passenger’. The reason

in the future. Plastic surgery

we come up with this idea is that

has already become a mature prac-

women values their careers so much

tice. Lots of people are working 6

for plastic surgery and lots of

Thus many new ethical problems and

people have reviewed or plan to the

disputes will arise thereafter.

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plastic surgery. In Asian countries, such as Japan, Korea and

The third idea is about the future

China, many women choose to take

workplace. Both of us had some

plastic surgeries including making

experiences working in the office

double eyelid, getting higher

as designers. The development of

nose, jaw tapered etc. Asian women

technics really provides lots of

also like to have bright and fair

benefits in working, especially for

skin. Probably during the past

designers. For example Apple de-

decades, western countries and US

veloped a serial of devices: iMac,

had strong power in the world and

iPad, Apple pen and many other

lots of people in Asia regarded a

customised personal devices. They

western looking face as superior.

also designed lots of great apps to

Another example is that, in Thai-

help designers and artists to do

land, even transgender is no longer

a better job. Bringing more com-

a big surgery anymore. Given all

forts to workplace is also a part

the above factors, we speculate a

of our considerations. And because

future in which people can changer

of these, nowadays more and more

their ethnics, namely, an Asian

people work not only in the office,

can transfer into an Anglo-Saxon

using phones to replay work emails

or vice versa. The changes do not

and make calls for the business

only occurs on the face but also in

partner everywhere and every time;

structure of the body or the colour

They can choose to do some extra

of the skin. If that happens, at

works at home. The boundary between

that time, the colour of the skin

work and life has become blurry

will no longer be the demarcation

and working at a certain place has

to distinguish the different races.

become less important. Is working 7

at home a better and more efficient way compared to work at office? If not, what kind of working environment is the best? In addition, there are several troubles caused by working at office, such as peak time and the high pressure to the city traffic. As designers, we certainly have more preference on creating and working in a perfectly well-deigned workplace. What technics and new ideas can we bring in designing the future workplace?

Such speculation really brings immense imagination and possibilities to us.

Our team has have more motivations

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in doing the future workplace because we both have the same expectations for our working place in the future.This idea is closer to our life. More significant, the combination of design and technics are always fascinating and attractive.

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TOOLS FOR IMAGING THE FUTURE

We didn’t have a clear idea of how

someone is about to take a job,

this tool will be like in the be-

there are several factors to be

ginning. We started with a broad

considered. For example, how long

research just as we did in the

does it take him to go to work from

first project. We predict that

home? Is there any place to have

there should be a kind of general

lunch or a quick bite in the neigh-

office that can be adapted to

bourhood of the office? What does

different kinds of indoor works

the working place looks like?

since todays technics, such as

individual privacy be well-protect-

tele-transmission has already

ed in a large open-plan office?

Can

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provide an possibility for people working at home. We researched

During the first tutorial on this

such issues: how many advantages

project, Terry reminded us that

can working at home have? what are

there are actually lots of types of

they? what are the advantages of

works in which the working place

working in the office comparing

will decide the successful perfor-

with working in the at home? What

mance of the work. For example,

are the benefits for the individu-

the stock investors have to work

als working at home? And so on. But

near the major server to guaran-

the communicative technology has

tee a simultaneous operation. The

its limitation and is not advanced

transmission speed of the data

enough to replicate face-to-face

is determined by the distance. We

office interactions. Besides, there

then studied a file entitled OCCU-

are some other factors which in-

PATION CLASS GUIDE. It categorises

fluence the working style. One of

all types of works in the UK and

these is how the environment affect

divides them in to several sec-

the efficiency of the work and to

tions. I made a scan-reading on all

what extent it affects work. When

type of works and focused on the 9

indoor works. I started to narrow

these factors affect each other.

down my work. Firstly, I made a

This three-dimension diagram is il-

list of indoor works; then I ex-

lustrated like a chorography. Then

cluded the work that are limited by

we combined the diagram with the

the distance and working places.

categories indoor works in a poster

In this way, the works I listed

which is used to illustrate our

can fit definition of the general

prediction on the future working

indoor works. Finally, our group

styles.

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divided this indoor work list into 6 sections: there are business,

This poster shows the various of

art and entertainment, science and

concerns of working people. It vis-

technology, services, government,

ualises all the cost of a chosen

society and education. The process

job: transportation, lunch outside,

of narrowing down our studies and

commuting time, etc. It emphasis-

deciding the focus of the research

es the necessity of reducing the

for this design project is like

working cost and the alternative

putting all the materials into

work styles of the working at home

a filter or putting them under a

or in community. The reflection

lens. We gathered all the infor-

of viewing this poster is the

mation we probably need and then

change of future working style. The

select the important ones to fit in

company can be treated as an open

our final design work. The other

network as well as a working place.

side of the coin is the human

The work style is decided by the

factors. Our research on the human

characteristics of the work.

factors is to design a three-dimen-

work must be done in an office

sion diagram. It includes the pos-

because its efficiency is directly

sible factors that a person need to

affected by the distance and the

consider before taking a job, how

working place. Some work can be 10

Some

done at home separately. Working

of work, the nature of meeting, and

at home will reduce the pressure

the specialty of some works.

brought by the human relations,

We realise the limitation and try

cut down the cost of money and

our best to improve this project

time, improve the efficiency of

before the third project so that it

time management, and greatly reduce

will not be a failed project.

the cost of running a company. The changes in the working style will bring more far-reaching effects.

It can release more urban space, decrease the emerging of skyscrapers, reduce traffic jam, bring greater productivity, improve staff retention and solve the employment problem in the long run.

Further Predictions

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As the boundary between work and life has become blurred by the changing of working style, the future office will have to meet the increasing need on a more personalised working environment.

After the presentation of this project, we’ve got many feedbacks.

We were asked to take more factors into consideration, e.g. the nature 11

AESTHETIC FUTURE

We have been driven too far by the

intelligent office hardwares. We

incredible technologies. In our

think these worldly famous films

point, the develop of the technic

and world-leading companies gave a

is not predictable and all of our

direction to what future technics

imaginations will come true one

for work will be. Due to there are

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Fig.3 Movie Iron Man

day. By doing the research, some

actually tons of these resources

films and TV series especially

online, we tried to created a time-

those which telling the stories

line based story to pick and cut

in the future, use highly func-

the videos we need and made the one

tional tools to work for them.

we showed on the presentation.

For example, Iron Man in the film

In consider of the topic of the

interact with a Holographic technic

last project, we should actually

to do his work. Also companies like

focus more on the whole working

Microsoft once produced a video to

system not the technique.

describe what the future workplace will be with the highly 12

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FUTURE DESIGN PROTOTYPE

For this project, our team first examined projects we did in the past and agreed that we could make some further explorations based on the second project about future office.

We want to know how far this project can be pushed forward.

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Research Questions

be viewed as a model of original modern office building. Then there

By analysing the relationship

appeared the cubical concept, the

between individuality and collec-

prevalence of open-plan office,

tivity in the spatial structure, we

the latest Google and Facebook

propose to discover people’s pref-

Building. Over one hundred years,

erence between these alternatives:

the concept of office space has

whether they need an entirely per-

developed from “office landscape”

sonalised free space or they prefer

to the unit style, flexible and

the shared atmosphere of the public

freestyle, SOHO style and the In-

space so that they can experience a

ternet-based remote office style.

sense of a social being in a commu-

Respectively, the modes of office

nity.

space reflect the various needs of working office, such as the super-

Research

vision and management-based average

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office within a huge space, the HiThe earliest concept of the per-

erarchical management-based complex

sonal office space can be found

office space, the privacy-oriented

a UK government report on office

village prototype and city proto-

space layouts in 1856, which points

type office building and the free

out the necessity of the personal

and comfort natural office space.

space in office work. “…for the

The alternative of the office space

intellectual work, separate rooms

is closely associated with the work

are necessary so that a person who

modes, management style, efficiency

works with his head may not be in-

of operation, and psychological and

terrupted.” In 1903, Frank Lloyd

social need of the individuals.

Wright designed the famous Larkin Administration Building, which can 14

Working Patterns As the concept of knowledge production transfers from material production to immaterial production, the fixed space of the production-based centralised workplace is necessarily replaced by the personalised workplace. In 1969, an inflatable mobile office was designed by an Austrian designer Hans Hollein. He designed a mobile office by using transparency plastic. This mobile office could be placed in any indoor or outdoor places. The intention of the project is to create a completely private and personal work space using electro-communication

REPORT CONERSNING CONERSNING FUTURE FUTURE REPORT

to connect with outside world. More significantly, the transparency of the office homogenised the physical features of “in” and “out”. This radical thinking predicts the developing tendency of workplace brought by the immaterial production. In the meantime, the development of network also speeds up this tendency.

Fig.4 Hans Hollein, Mobiles Büro

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How design reflect our idea Based on the concept of a customised working space, we start with one single standpoint, that is, the user can create his own office. Within each office room, the walls ground, and the desk surface are electronic screens.

The user can customise each screen to suffice his own needs, using a wall as a window to view natural scenery or cityscape, another as a communication interface, or working really hard in a classic look office room, etc.

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Sleep Mode When no one is in

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Street view mode with wooden floor

A classic working enviorment with carpet

Mirror walls with marble floor

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Administration pattern The maximum of individual demands brings about the update of the management pattern to guarantee the quality of work. Accordingly, the administrators’ power will be reinforced. A case in point is the Panopticon designed by Jeremy Bentham, which provides a mode of pan-supervision. Foucault saw it as the prototype of modern supervision pattern. This new supervision pattern reflects the combination of power and knowledge and give inspiration to various kinds of modern

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administration modes.

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How design reflect our idea Inspired by this pattern, we put administration room in the shape of a 3x3x3 rubic cube, in which the administrator’s room is located in the centre of the cube. This room is the same as aother single rooms. This design can enable the supervisor to supervise and have access to the employees in any direction. This administration mode can increase the management efficiency and economise the management resources while at the same time, increase the self-consciousness of the employees.

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Efficiency of operation

work and slower people who generate high-quality work. The two types of

One of the negative effect of the

people have a spillover effect on

open-plan office is the lack of

each other, but only in a positive

sounds privacy in the office. David

way. The productive people made the

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Fig.5 Microsoft: Productivity Future Vision

Burkus, a columnist for Forbes,

slow people faster, without compro-

once stated that:“ A lack of sound

mising quality. And the high-qual-

privacy received the most negative

ity producers similarly rubbed off

responses from employees in open

on the high-speed workers.

offices. In addition, between 25 and 30% of employees in open-plan

How design reflect our idea

offices were dissatisfied with the level of noise in their work-

To solve the lack of sound privacy,

place.” Also, the HBS research

we design a single office room with

identified two types of people:

high-quality insulating walls.

high-productivity employees who

Also, based on the spillover effect

generally produce lower-quality

in HBS research, the productive 20

people made the slow people faster.

Each wall of the office room can be lifted like a roller shutter. In this way, two single office room can become a larger office room for two. Similarly, more single rooms can be combine to make a larger office room for more workers.

Next, to meet the psychological and social needs of the individuals, we design a highly customised working space. As it is mentioned above, within each office room, the walls and the panels of the desk are electronic screens. The user can customise each screen to operate his work or to suffice his aesthet-

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ic needs.

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SUMMARY OF THE DESIGN

The idea and the practice of a

architectural design. The value of

highly-individualized free work

the work place is determined by the

place received more questions and

public, urban and social features

negative responses. Thus bring

of the share space as well as the

about the return of the public

individual need for free space.

space in the work place and need for a multiple function office

How it related to the Museum

building. Our ideas intends to

of Not Yet

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express a certain balance between individual space and public space

The outcome of our design is a 3D

and the idea of a sustainable de-

model and it will be displayed in

velopment of the work place. A

the museum with the explanation to

perfect free individual space will

this the office model in a working

break the balanced relationship of

system. Our project is a reflec-

the individual and collectives.

tion of the contemporary working

When the balance is lost, the free

system with a focus on the balance

individual space cannot exist. We

between individuality and collec-

does not start with the prediction

tivity. What is a healthy working

of the future development of the

environment? How to provide a sus-

work space from the architectur-

tainable developing model? We hope

al perspective is that the design

out design can provide an awareness

of the architecture structure is

among the public and let people

decides by the need of the people.

realize the significance of a

Out supposition is based on the

healthy balance between individual

relationship between the individ-

space and public space.

ual and the collectives in a work place. It is rather an expression of such relations than a specific 22

REFERENCE

Image List Fig.1 Royal Mint Trading Fund Annual Report and Accounts 2014-15 Fig.2 Movie Passenger Screenshot, 2017, [online] Aviliable at:< https://www.notchbad.com/random/passengers-movie-got-us-thinking/ > Fig.3 Movie Iron Man Screenshot, 2017, [online] Aviliable at:<http://sociable.co/technology/virtual-augmented-reality-the-next-gold-rush-of-tech-industry/> Fig.4 Hollein,H, Mobiles Büro, 2017, [online] Aviliable at:<https:// uk.pinterest.com/pin/319755642267151143/> Fig.5 Microsoft: Productivity Future Vision. 2017. [online]Abiliable

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at:<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-tFdreZB94>

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Ábalos, I, 2005. Tower and Office: From Modernist Theory to Contemporary Practice (MIT Press). New Ed. The MIT Press.

Bloomberg.com. 2017. The Ideal Office Floor Plan, According to Science - Bloomberg. [online] Available at:<https://www.bloomberg. com/news/articles/2016-08-01/the-ideal-office-floor-plan-accordingto-science>. [Accessed 01 April 2017].

Bryan Borzykowski. 2017. BBC - Capital - Why open offices are bad for us. [online] Available at:<http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170105-open-offices-are-damaging-our-memories>. [Accessed 01 April 2017]. business.com. 2017. How Open Office Plans Affect Workplace Productivity. [online] Available at:<https://www.business.com/articles/ dan-scalco-workplace-productivity/.> [Accessed 02 April 2017]. forbes.com. 2017. Why Your Open Office Workspace Doesn’t Work [online] Available at <https://www.forbes.com/sites/ davidburkus/2016/06/21/why-your-open-office-workspace-doesntwork/#69c243f5435f> [Accessed 01 April 2017].

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Fortune.com. 2017. The Open-Office Concept Is Dead. [online] Available at:<http://fortune.com/2016/05/12/the-open-office-concept-isdead/> [Accessed 01 April 2017].

Foucault, M, 1991. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (Penguin Social Sciences). Penguin Books Ltd. George Musser. 2017. The Origin of Cubicles and the Open-Plan Office - Scientific American. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-origin-of-cubicles-an/. [Accessed 01 June 2017].

Marketplace from APM. 2017. The rise of the open-plan office. [online] Available at: https://www.marketplace.org/2015/04/01/business/rise-open-plan-office. [Accessed 02 April 2017].

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Tapscott, D, 1985. Office Automation : A User-Driven Method (Applications). 1. Springer.

www.wired.com. 2017. Evolution of Office Spaces Reflects Changing Attitudes Toward Work. [online] Available at:<https://www.wired. com/2009/03/pl-design-5/>. [Accessed 02 April 2017].

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OCCUPATION CLASS GUIDE. 2017. Pdf. Avaliable at:<http://www.legalandgeneral.com/library/underwriting/underwriting-form/W7557.pdf>

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