Commercial Interior Designers have been meeting the challenges of improving the cubical workspace concept for a very, very long time. One can argue about which business goals were primarily served, but most would agree that efficiency – not aesthetics, comfort or health issues – was the driving force. Beauty was probably not even on the list, although there are well-proven connections between comfort, beauty and efficiency!
We can all remember that beehive affect, stretching across huge space, where finding one’s cubbyhole was about as exciting as arriving at the dull and uninteresting destination itself.
Change came slowly. In heroic efforts to incorporate capacity variations, introduce bolder colors over muted tones, improve lighting beyond the traditional desk lamp and other attempts to relieve environmental monotony for workers, the concept gradually evolved. Some forms of visual relief were introduced, with movable panels that allowed employees to actually see fellow workers just that small partition away!
Next to the efficiency god, convenience drove many executive decisions. Space usage was maximized with cubicles as small as possible – not necessarily as small as was reasonable. If the tasks at hand were possible in smaller space, smaller space was provided – obviously to incorporate as many cubicles as possible in the available environment.
Space reduction became more arguable as electronics trimmed down necessary components. Elements such as hard copy supplies, large communication appliances and hard copy storage files became obsolete. Less space needed penciled out to less space provided, allowing the smaller cubicle space rationale to thrive!
Concerning the neglected factors of aesthetics, comfort and beauty, Interior designers worked diligently to propose important perceptive changes to clients with large employee and production challenges. It wasn’t so much that the cubicle concept needed to be abandoned, but, rather that the concept had a lot of room for development and improvement.
As health issues in the workplace began to share center stage with efficiency and production goals, new challenges and opportunities were presented to Interior design decision makers. A new term, Ergonomics, became an important Interior design driver. Workplace health issues gained new and serious consideration and focused on business environments like a laser.
Ergonomically appropriate furnishing, lighting, and equipment strategies began to revise even small workspaces. Acknowledging the connection of the mental and physical welfare of employees, and their efficiency, to the space in which they produced their work product became apparent.
The humble cubicle slowly embraced improved aesthetics, comfort, beauty and health.
Interior design options and innovation moved into the fast lane! Smart business enterprises trended into support for the new insights provided by the science of ergonomics, the obvious connections of beauty, employee satisfaction and efficiency – not to mention the impacts on production. New uses of lighting, the magic of color, the introduction of more art accessories and creative panel modifications transformed dense work environments.
The older, dull and monotonous treatments faded into the background as businesses remodeled and refreshed their dense staffing areas. A solid workplace concept – cubicles – hasn’t been thrown away. Revisions, compliance with ergonomic disciplines and innovative Interior design have transformed the concept – while preserving and improving business efficiency and production goals.
Robert Boccabella, B.F.A. is principal and founder of Business Design Services and a certified interior designer (CID) in private practice for over 30 years. Boccabella provides Designing to Fit the Vision in collaboration with writingservice@earthlink.net. To contact him call 707-263-7073; email him at rb@BusinessDesignServices.com or visit www.BusinessDesignServices.com or on Face Book at Business Design Services.
