Designing Offices Against the Curve

A body at rest tends to stay at rest. Just ask T.J. Allen. His research of communications and its relation to collaborating led to the idea of the Allen Curve: the more distance there is between people, the less they will communicate. The effect really kicks in at 50 meters, or 150 feet.

Designing offices to be more compact is one way to counter an aversion to taking a walk at work. This ends up being a win-win for the business: People talk more (coming up with better ideas) and real estate costs go down.

Smaller offices and places for people to gather or bump into one another, as J. Michael Welton writes about in The New York Times, shared offices, compact conference rooms equipped with technology, quiet spots to get away from it all, choices in where to work given the task at hand, all these are elements in creating the right balance. That’s key. Intelligent remixing between individual offices and group and community areas, as opposed to simply shedding real estate, is necessary for enabling one of the organization’s largest resources—its human talent.

Branca Chair: Art and Process in Ten Minutes

Is a ten-minute video on the making of a chair worth your time? When it so beautifully demonstrates a balance of modern industrial process and handcrafting, we think so.

The Branca chair, inspired by the twists, turns, and seamless transitions of a tree branch, seems as if it were formed by nature. Evident in the video, making such a form is no simple task.

Sophisticated CNC mills slowly carve complex parts from wooden blocks. Skilled crafts people attend to the final shaping, hand finishing, and careful assembly. To realize Branca, both are necessary.

The result says Branca’s designer Sam Hecht is “Comfortable, not just to the eye, but to the body and the hands.”