Akihiro Kishimoto / Institute of Office Systems, KOKUYO Co., Ltd.

The office space can function fully only when it caters to the needs arising from the workstyle of the people using it and the kind of information technology (IT) used there. It is not easy, however, to foresee the needs of corporate organizations now in the state of constant change and to introduce the rapidly advancing information technology ahead of actual needs. Corporations could not keep up with the times if they were to modify the office space performance each time different needs arise, surpassing foreseen capacity. Thus, it would be best to leave the office renovation in the hand of the user who is most aware of the changing needs.





SHORTER CYCLE OF OFFICE RENEWAL NEEDS


1. Shift to More Flexible Organizations

Organizational restructuring is one of the representative factors calling for the renovation of office interior. Organizational integration and rearrangement and personnel reshuffle necessitate such modifications as changing the layout of workstations and relocating personal computers along with their cables.
The need for an office to adapt to organizational restructuring will further increase in near future. The organizational structure will be more fluid, making the physical office space more susceptible to the constantly changing needs arising as workers are relocated and the individual role expected of each worker changes.

Fig.1 Fluidity of organizational structure and spatial arrangement


2. Introduction and Renewal of IT

Another important factor office for renovation is the introduction and renewal of IT, which is advancing almost exponentially, churning out diverse tools to effectuate office work, while making every equipment obsolete in terms of function and performance in unexpectedly shorter time. This problem is further complicated by the fact that newly installed equipment and the network system supporting it have cables and connectors which do not match with the existing ones. Therefore, office renovation necessiates the replace of all these pieces of network equipment at a substantial cost.

Fig.2 Changing office tools


3. Diversified Workstyle

The trend for more fluid organization and the advance of IT have tremendously affected the workstyle. The desktop will be virtualized by the information equipment, so that locational and temporal restrictions will disappear, making it easier to shift to a more non-territorial workstyle.
To be more socially aware, corporations are now orienting themselves toward more flexibility in coping with diverse needs of individual office workers in terms of age, gender, physical handicaps and family environment. In order to be able to offer such customized services without hampering user mobility, a working environment must in some cases be able to be adjusted to meet different and diverse needs at the same time, which is not of course an easy thing to implement.

Fig.3 Diversifying workstyles


4. Move Workers, Not Things

In recent years when needs are diversified and cycles of change shortened, one of the main strategies which are now applied to office environments is to move workers, not things in order to cope with changes. A strategy called the "universal plan" is to standardize private spaces and workstations, so that when required by organizational change, workers can move to new posts without spatial modifications. The "free address" or "non-territorial" office does not provide individual spaces for workers. These new office space strategies may not prove to be sufficient in the future when the organizational change becomes more dynamic and the cycle of change for IT and workstyle shorter. For instance, providing each space with a system to cope with all the possible needs for the purpose of expanding areas which can be accessed by the IT, may result in too heavily equipped spaces, with a resultant loss of flexibility to deal with change.

Fig.4 Changing spatial allocation


5. Things Also Move as People Move

As we have seen, the office space should be so designed as to support various daily activities of workers who move with things, in order to improve the adaptability of the office interior. It would be more practical to implement an environment where the user can select tools according to his or her specific job and customize the spaces which are equipped with versatile but limited functions. In other words, this is a space where people move with things or can adapt each environment to specific needs.
One of the realistic ways to realize this type of space is to let the user modify the space on a daily basis to meet pliantly the individual needs and to make an effective use of information technology. This kind of space can be called the "self-management" space, which we will look at in the following section.

Fig.5 Things Move As People Move






OFFICE FURNITURE FOR SELF-MANAGEMENT


1. Change and Updating to Be Effected by the User

The elements comprising an office space can be divided into two categories from the point of view of the given designing requirements. To the first category belong the elements related to the given requirements which are organizational and structural (environment, facilities, etc.). The other category comprises those requirements to deal with the details of interior or superficial designs and personal needs.
Generally speaking, many of the elements belonging to the first category have a longer cycle of change and need professional hands for modifications. Those belonging to the secondary category, on the other hand, tend to change in a shorter cycle as they deal with the needs of individual users. Designing these elements in such a way as to make it possible for the user to change, in other words, designing for self-updating, is a sure way to improve the adaptability of the office space for dail changes.


2. Furniture Units with Ambiguous Module

The concept of designing self-updating spaces would be to make the furniture systems less rigidly linked with the basic elements such as building systems, in order to increase user autonomy in selecting, laying out and modifying these elements. The cables and outlets are, for example, integrated as fixed service walls and the furniture units to be linked with them are as independent, light and mobile as possible, so that the user can arrange them with ease. By adopting such a system, the user can easily replace or add items, and rearrange or adjust their layouts according to the needs.

Fig.6


1) Modular arrangement where independent units can be overlapped, will allow the user more freedom in adjusting or changing the layout of elements or the distnace between them without paying too much attention to the "correct" positioning.

2) The fixed service wall incorporating various cables and outlets for power and data distribution. Although this wall is primarily under the management of the FM Department its outlets. A module-free cable outlet(*) or an easily operated storage system(*) will be a solution.

3) The adoption of independent furniture units which are light-weight and easily adjustable allows the user to create his or her own personal space. The collapsible type depicted here, for example, allows free and loose arragements not restricted by installation methods or sizes.

4) A simple table-type desk unit can be combined with other units freely. The size of the desk top should be limited to a few variations, allowing wider applications and resulting in longer use.

5) The connection with the fixed service wall should be as loose as possible. A free, sliding connection system rather than a modular connecting system (*) will allows the user to be able to make day-to-day minor changes and modifications.

6) An example of a loose module consisting of independent desk units. By making the side table for which ergonomertric concerns are not so important as for the main table, overlapping is realized.Also, in terms of shape, the square and the cirlcle are combined, creating an ambituity (freedom of arrangement) that there is really no correct angle of arrangement.


3. Support an Extensive Use of IT

It is important to work out a system where workers can easily make use of IT at any place, if we are to implement an ambience which allows workers to move freely along with office tools and to respond flexibly to the needs arising from diverse daily activities. It is particularly effective to extend the use of personal computers which are now becoming "portable offices" by virtualizing the desktop. The most basic measure to realize this situation is to locate outlets for power source and data at accessible places. Easy access will be greatly helpful in promoting people to use IT without being coerced.




TIPS FOR SELF-MANAGEMENT


1. Accepting Changes

A self-updating office interior can not be realized unless the user is given an authority to decide what kind of environment he or she needs and implement it. The important thing is to maintain efficiently the support performance of an office environment in order to cope with the organizational structure and technology which change almost daily, thus contributing to improve the speed and quality of the achievement of each office worker. For this, it is imperative to work out a system where new ideas for change are accepted and quickly put to use.

Fig.7 Accepting changes will put ideas to work.


2. Supporting Environmental Literacy

The user needs skills to control his or her working environment, if the self-updating office space is to function effectively. In this vein, the facility manager can contribute in two ways: offering advice on daily management and accepting continuous feedback for a long-term facility plan. Under the self-management system, it is more important to provide extensive user service on daily basis rather than to develop a system for easy facility control. If the facility manager can serve as an adviser, the user can quickly make minor modifications, and the office as a whole can deal more flexibly with the changes of organizational structure and workstyle.


3. Transferring Environment Control Skills

It is also important to the designer to transfer skills to the user. For this purpose, it would be appropriate to have the user participate in the designing process, thereby making him define the needs arising from his own workstyle.If a design decision is made with the user participation and approval, and the full support is guaranteed, there is a high possibility that office workers themselves can update their office environment on their own to cope with changing needs.

Fig.8 Environmental literacy training through user participation




(an excerpt from ECIFFO 27, October 5, 1995)