Flexibility in Modern Office Environments

Abstract

The way people work, the way the want to work, the environments they work in, and the people working are changing every day. Historical trends have seen preemptive assumptions about the future of workplace design, leading to too-specialized environments that locked facilities into a certain mode of work and thought. Today's mainstream workplace philosophy favors preparedness for the unpredictable future. By exploring the means in which office designers and facility managers are preparing for the unknown, one can gain insight about the available technologies that promote flexible design and the issues that inspire flexible design techniques and elements.