Agile Workplace

The arena for business operations and competitions becomes more and more global, as information technology permeates into every aspect of business. Accordingly, the standard of the digital world will be applied for the speed of decision-making and acting. How will the workplaces, which support the activities of corporations, adapt to the rapidly changing business environment? Space needs to be quickly planned and constructed. Changes and renewals constantly take place. Support services are used selectively and flexibly in order to suit particular needs. This issue explores the concept of an "agile workplace" which can flexibly respond to the rapidly changing business strategies and corporate needs.


 
NORTEL NETWORKS/ Brampton, CANADA
Adaptable Workplace-City
Nortel (Northern Telecom), a long-time well-established manufacturer of communications equipment started its new course in 1998 as Nortel Networks when it merged with Bay Networks. The Brampton Center completed in 1996 is the world headquarters for the newly born Nortel Networks-a unique office converted from a working factory into an environment for white-collar workers.
 
NORTEL NETWORKS/ Brampton, CANADA
The New Office Dubbed "City"
Keep Everything Movable
In the industrial area Oerlikon in Zurich, approximately twenty minutes' drive northward from downtown, you find an eye catching, state-of-the-art building, which is the new headquarters of Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Temporary as it is, with a lease limited to two years, the office contains a modern and high-quality interior full of agile elements.
 
PRICEWATERHOUSE COOPERS/ Zurich, SWITZERLAND
Furniture Chosen for Movability and Space Architectonic Merit

The Funky Fort of Nimble Teams
In order to survive in the digital industry going through cut-throat competition, companies must always be flexibly aggressive to be able to cope with changes. The office of AliaslWavefront, the frontrunner of the industry, however, is paradoxically an old brick building, which appears to be far from giving an impression of flexibility and agility. In actuality the office housed in this building is an state-of-the-art one capable of swiftly coping with staff moves and departmental reorganization and promoting casual interaction.
 
ALIAS/WAVEFRONT/ Toronto, CANADA
A High-tech Workplace in an Old Brick Buiding
Versatile Services for Dynamic Community
"The Liberty Village" has become the center of the high-tech industry in Toronto and Toronto Carpet Factory is now the icon of this area. It is a tenant building complex renovated from a carpet factory. Its flexible and quick services have attracted many high-tech tenants. The flexible services and facilities offered by TCF are here illustrated by the case studies of its four tenants.
 
TORONTO CARPET FACTORY/ Toronto, CANADA
Challenge Taking Place in the Architecure Built in the 19th Century
Zero-Time Space
Franklin Becker, Ph.D.
International Workplace Studies Program
Cornell University


Zero time space is space that can be procured and/or constructed and be ready for use in as short a period of time (as close to zero) as possible from when the need to occupy (or exit) a space occurs. It can be achieved physically, by new approaches to construction; organizationally, by new approaches to procurement; technologically, by exploiting the potential of information technology to enable remote work; and operationally, by new policies for allocating and using space. ranklin Becker