Good offices.

SPACE TO WORK: NEW OFFICE DESIGN

By Jeremy Myerson and Philip Ross. London: Laurence King, 2006. [pounds sterling]35 hardback

Two sparky authors (Myerson is Director of Innovation at the Royal College of Art, Ross is both chief executive of the Cordless Group and commentator on workplace matters) analyse offices in the context of the wider world of workplace design. The 43 international case studies are not confined, therefore, to the toughest architectural challenge in the workplace field: the speculative office block. That type, however, is influenced by wider trends in office design and architects who undertake it should have this volume on their shelves.

Like other analysts of workspace, for example DEGW with their notion of hives, cells, dens and clubs, Myerson and Ross have a taxonomy to simplify their subject. This comprises 'Academy' (the learning campus); 'Guild' (the professional cluster); 'Agora' (the public workplace); and 'Lodge' (the live-work setting). This makes the question of workplace sound much more creative than, for many office workers, it is in practice. The book is based on the proposition that early office design reflected the notion of factory production, and that as technology has eased or eliminated the dull routines of office life, so creativity and thinking have produced a new breed of office environments.

Well, up to a point. One has to contrast the delightful case study offices shown here in all their colourful volumetric glory with the all-too-common (these days) reversion to the typist-pool model of equal banality for all. There are no examples shown of the 'bench' office layouts which do much to cheer finance directors in search of increased margins, but little to raise the spirits of the work station galley slave.