Workplace design

Disciplines > Workplace design

The workplace today is a result of historical innovations that were designed to make the workplace a productive environment. However the world of work continues to change, and the design factors that once were helpful are adding less value than they once did.

Here are a set of principles and practices you can use in designing offices and workplaces.

• Work patterns: How we work differently.
• Working spaces: Patterns of space we use.
• Overall design principles: Basic guidelines for workplace design.
• Physical design principles: Principles for the solid stuff.
• Physical layout elements: Aisles, pillars and so on make a difference.
• Psychological principles: Basic human needs are important.
• Office design: Principles for creating good offices.
• Workstation design: Designing the desk where people sit.
• Workplaces for teams: Building places where people can work together.
• Designing experiences: Within your workplace, for all who visit and work there.

See also

Christopher Alexander, A Timeless Way of Building, New York: Oxford University Press, 1979

Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein, with Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King and Shlomo Angel, A Pattern Language, New York: Oxford University Press, 1977

Franklin Becker and Fritz Steele, Workplace by Design (Mapping the High-performance Workscape), an Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1995

Alexi Marmot and Joanna Eley, Office Space Planning (Designing for Tomorrow’s Workplace), New York: McGraw Hill, 2000

Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, MIT Press, 1998

Paco Underhill, Why We Buy, Touchstone Books, New York, 1999