The Trend for
The Next Generation Office

Corporations are now reexaming their business process and organizational structure. The information technology which is an important business tool is making a giant leap forward. How has the office responded to these changes? What will be our workstyle and what kind of workspace will be required to accommodate new workstyles? This issue explores what should be done with regards to office design by tracing the history of office design development and analyzing the factors for future changes.


 
Sun Microsystems,Inc./ Mountain View,California, USA
   
A common theme threading various advanced office design concepts adopted by companies such as 3Com, Sun Microsystems, Ericsson, SOL and DEC, is how to cope with more flexible organizations and workstyles. Organizations and workers will become freer and more fluid so as to cope with changes when diverse technologies and systems are combined into an integrated design encompassing construction, interior planning, supportive information technology and support services. Nomadic computing supported by information technology, non-territorial office striving to achieve a balance between effect and efficiency, and full support services which is essential to make them function in day-to-day work situations.
 
 
 
3com corporation / California, USA
 
 
 
Sun Microsystems, INC. / California, USA
 
 
 
Ericsson Business Networks AB / Stockholm, SWEDEN
 
 
 
SOL Cleaning Service / Helsinki, FINLAND
 
 
 
DEC Digital Equipment Corporation / Stockholm, SWEDEN
 

CLUB OFFICE
Akihiro Kishimoto, Institute of Office Systems, Kokuyo Co., Ltd.

Judging from the present trend of social change, business and information technology, occupying the mainstream workforce in the future will be those professional workers who will make the utmost use of information technology. Their workstyle will be non-territorial, unrestricted by time and place. This article proposes an image of office space which will serve as the base supporting their activities, the activities of "electronic nomads."

Talk: From Pencils to Media Servers

  
Naoto Okude, Associate Professor, Keio University + Akihiro Kuroda, President, Kokuyo Co., Ltd.

They talk about the network computing made possible by the advance of digital technology with an emphasis on organizational changes and the future of business environment.
 

Cafeteria Sytle Office

  
Contributed by Franklin Becker, Professor, Cornell University

Professor Becker points out that workers should put more emphasis on what work to achieve rather than on where to work and be able to choose the tools, spaces and services which most adequately support the work. This workstyle of selecting from diverse and well-thought-out options and combining them is similar to the act of choosing one's dishes from the menu at a cafeteria.