Great and clever if you can, and do on an hourly basis, pack your entire office into a briefcase - and can stand working in a cafe environment for prolonged periods. Obviously made for a building full of on-the-go types for whom a fixed office is a waste of space.<p>But not for those of us who can't shove our dual- or giant-monitor quad-core computers and sprawled testing platforms into a briefcase. Nor for those who settle in 8-12 hours a day, 5-8 days a week, to the same chair and no desire to hunt around for a different one because someone moved into "yours". Nor for those who don't take irrelevant noise/distractions well (as I sit across the hall from a factory).<p>Ya know, I'd like to see a slick photo layout/montage of developer's <i>offices</i>, ya know those things with walls that go to the ceiling, doors that close, opaque walls, and windows that reveal a view that's inspirational to creativity & productivity.
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it<p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.02/chiat_pr.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.02/chiat_pr.html</a>
Providing a variety of nice spaces that aren't "desk with computer" so people can meet each other, discuss things, find a quiet corner to think - Great!<p>Using it as an excuse to save on 'seats', trying to get everyone to hotdesk (meaning staff feeling undervalued and resentful, storage problems, not knowing where people will be found, many other time issues, and probably heaps more money on laptops, support staff, etc.) - Bad idea!
A documentary film on nightmarish office spaces like the one depicted here was recently released by German director Carmen Losmann:<p>Work hard - Play hard (2011)<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeLY9y6VP2U" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeLY9y6VP2U</a><p><a href="http://www.hupefilm.de/dokumentarfilm/workhard_playhard.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.hupefilm.de/dokumentarfilm/workhard_playhard.php</a>
"Flexible working" was the Ministry of Defence (UK)'s solution for overcrowding while I was working there. Result? People just worked at the same desk anyway. The junior people (ie me) had to move around a lot to fill in gaps when someone was absent.<p>This looks to be quite a different approach. Lots of little corners that you can tuck yourself away in. I'm not sure I'd like to work in that environment though. A big desktop monitor is useful, and working with a laptop actually on your lap is really uncomfortable. I'd imagine that if I was in that environment I'd either stick to a proper desk all the time or find that I wasn't really getting much actual work done while I lounged on a sofa.
Many people spend all of their time in meetings, and I think it makes perfect sense to allocate their office space to meeting space. As a developer, most of those are completely non-productive environments. <a href="http://www.officesnapshots.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/CS080.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://www.officesnapshots.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/CS...</a> would be good, or perhaps even <a href="http://www.officesnapshots.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/CS071.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://www.officesnapshots.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/CS...</a>.
Totally unrelated to the beautiful pictures in this post, but I was recently talking to a Credit Suisse employee who mentioned they'd made a large move to F#. I'm not a big fan of working in finance, but that's a much bigger selling point for me than plants (which I'm probably allergic to) surrounding uncomfortable-looking chairs.
The BBC have a similar approach at the new Media City development. On the surface it seems like a neat idea but in reality humans needs a place to call their own in some way, even if we start off as a nomadic civilisation even back then we would have has something to call ours that demarked our "space".<p>I think the idea is nice but people should have the ability to have some territory if that choose to
I work as a consultant for CS, it's weird when your workplace pops up on HN.<p>We have one of these on the 18th floor in London too, it's so out of place with the rest of the building but it's super awesome, we sneak up there for lunches etc.<p>I don't think any devs would be able to use this as just getting permissions + your box in order would be a nightmare here, unless you were logging into a vm or your usual machine.<p>Most devs have pretty good setups here, here's mine <a href="http://i.imgur.com/QoK8F.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/QoK8F.jpg</a> (I am aware of KVMs, I just think this looks cooler ^_^)
For mobile people, fine, probably.<p>But if you look around any traditional office, you see personalization. People tend to merge with their environments. People tie themselves to their environment. They make their work part of their lives.<p>If you can't personalize, you're less tied and more prone to leave. In any case, I would probably leave, because I'm non-assertive and it would be stressful to me to compete with everyone <i>every day</i> for work space. I don't want to think about work space, I just want to work. If I have to, I'll work somewhere else.
OK, call me weird but I didn't like these digs. How to articulate what I find wrong with them ... they look banker-y, MBA-y, wanna-be-the-only-way-is-up-lets-meet-after-work-in-a-sports-bar-y.<p>I like spaces with a lived-in feeling, you should be able to change the places of chairs, tables etc. and not totally screw up the feng shui aesthetic chic of the environment. Also, I hate those cool chairs with flimsy legs, for some reason I tend to break those legs when I fidget on them.<p>If I ever have a chance to lead a company, I would give a fixed (small) amount of money (e.g. $500) for furniture (except chair, that costs too much) to each new hire, show them an empty space and let them design it. I think a good programmer/hacker would do a great job with this.
Now compare this with an UBS trading room:<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikaelv/29636880/" rel="nofollow">http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikaelv/29636880/</a>
I think having both can be clever.<p>People often on the go don't really need a permanent desk, whereas more sedentary jobs benefit from having their space.
More information in this press release:
<a href="https://responsibility.credit-suisse.com/app/article/index.cfm?fuseaction=OpenArticle&aoid=342116&coid=64291&lang=EN" rel="nofollow">https://responsibility.credit-suisse.com/app/article/index.c...</a>
That seems like a really good idea. I am assuming that some of the working nooks have large screen displays with laptop adapters handy. Also having charging cords for laptops, phones, etc. would make things more convenient.
Very interesting that that looks more like a tech startup than a bank office<p>Especially in contrast to CS's NYC office, which is a very old fashioned investment banking/trading floor type office
As long as there is a private room I can work in then it's all good. I don't mind picking up my laptop and looking for a new place to think, but privacy is key.