How did we get from cube farms to kombucha bars?

Could early office designers have imagined the evolution we’ve experienced…from the first offices buildings three centuries ago supporting expanding commerce, to the Taylorism of the early 20th century, to the cube farms of the 1980s, to the nap pods and kombucha bars of today’s experiential spaces? We’ve come a long way in the evolution of workplace design.

To understand what will shape the future of work, we need to consider the trends that got us to where we are today. In Chapter One of our forthcoming book, The Workplace You Need Now. my JLL colleagues and I take readers on a deep dive into office design history.

We discovered that while productivity has always been an organizational priority, human experience has not always been at the forefront of workplace design. How did we get from factory-inspired offices of the past to the amenity-rich, tech-driven workplaces of today? Let’s take a quick tour through time.

Buttoned up: Back to where it all began

In unpacking the design influences that have shaped the office for our book, I considered my own first office experience. I was the rookie on a team relegated to the “swing space” (which I later learned was code for “we grew too fast, so let’s put new people in this old conference room”).?

Every day, half a dozen of us shouldered into the tight makeshift space—affectionately nicknamed the Romper Room—and actually enjoyed it. You could just turn around to ask a question or collaborate.?There was a sense of shared purpose and camaraderie that inspired other colleagues to come in to connect, have a laugh and get energized.

Though imperfect, it was actually quite an influential and fun experience professionally.?How does it compare to corporate environments through time?

The formative period for dedicated office buildings dates back to the London skyline in the early 1700s, as the British Empire expanded and managed around the world requiring organization and paperwork for the likes of the Royal Navy and East India Trading Company. Dedicated physical space was necessary to manage the affairs of a major enterprise.

Buttoned up, centralized and compartmentalized: This general philosophy helped inform the first wave of office development in major U.S. cities in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the nation’s expanding railroads supercharged growth and complexity of American business.

20th century office design: From efficiency first to…the ’80s

I didn’t know it then, but my time as a conference room Romper was something of an homage to early to mid-twentieth century design principles, when offices were built for efficiency first. Mechanical Engineer Frederick Taylor had revolutionized industrial efficiency—with unfortunate consequence for office workers in the early 1900s, when it became popular to pack employees like sardines.

By the 1960s, some higher-level employees benefitted from the debut of skyscrapers. As these structures began to tower over the world’s cities, workplace designers brought that expansion not just upward, but within.

While productivity remained vital, collaboration and socialization were also elevated, and organizations started breaking up rows of workstations into clusters with small privacy partitions. They also began to see how workplace environments could affect the work. That collective ‘aha’ moment led to allocating different types of space for different types of work, from the secretarial pool to meeting spaces to dining areas, as well as including space and privacy for heads-down work.

By the profit-or-bust ’80s, it was the rise of the dreaded cubicle farm. Most knowledge workers could expect their workplace to offer a small, windowless, assigned space to do their job, and that’s it.

This trend played out across the suburbs, too, even though there was more room to spread out. The promise of suburbia lured many professionals with families—and in turn their employers—throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Limited in amenities and neighborhood appeal, at least office workers could expect an easy commute and a parking spot.

Finally, the Internet broke the spell of the unimaginative workplace. The dot-com boom and emerging tech landscape around the turn of the twenty-first century brought down the fabric-covered, modular cubicle walls, replacing them with experience-driven layouts and amenities that instantly paid off in recruitment and retention. Other sectors took inspiration from tech leaders, and began offering more variety and more dynamic environments, complete with plenty of natural light, more food options, and the signature ping pong table for a touch of “cool.”?

At the same time, open collaborative plans and dense bench seating for programmers with headphones to write code elbow to elbow gained in popularity and brought some reminders from the past.?

What do we need to bring to workplace design now?

The importance of attracting and retaining young talent, the impact of collaboration and innovation for long term performance, and the inevitability of transformation and disruption across society and business necessitate the emergence of a new personalized, responsible, and experiential workplace. The workplaces we collectively need are enriching hubs where value is created and brands come to life. Purpose and flexibility have to be balanced in design principles work styles, and where employees are inspired to be their best from everywhere.???

To be honest, I don’t actually know what kombucha is (I’m a cold brew guy). But I do know that the winning workplaces of the future will have elements that are magnetic and create a spark.?They will need to be agile, and provide seamless physical and digital experiences.?

Learn more about the trends that shaped today’s workplace environments—and where to go from here—in our new book, hitting shelves October 26.?