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Do any workplaces model themselves after university campuses? In essence, creating a wide variety of spaces to accommodate myriad working styles. Lower floors

Do any workplaces model themselves after university campuses? In essence, creating a wide variety of spaces to accommodate myriad working styles. Lower floors of a library for solitude, campus coffee shops for more social or creative tasks. A myriad of rooms and open spaces for ad hoc collaboration. Outdoor areas with tables and benches. Lounges. Departmental enclaves with desks and storage when you need a more persistent environment. It feels like my productivity plummeted once I graduated and landed in a cubicle.

Xichekolas 18y ago
I blogged about this once in more detail (like you care), but I think workplaces would benefit greatly if they had zones that were analogous to those found in houses. House Office Bedroom/office/study Private Office Dining Room Small team collaboration spaces Living Room Common lounge Backyard/family room Whole company meeting room/auditorium People stay in their bedroom/study when they want privacy and the ability to concentrate. They hang out in living rooms and dining rooms when they want to see other people. When you have all your friends over, you most likely spend your time in the kitchen/family room/backyard. I don't see why your workplace should only have semi-private personal zones (bedrooms) or a single huge room (family room). No family would like a house with only bedrooms or only a family room, so why should employees like a workplace with only one type of room?
- mhb 18y ago
  Sounds like Joel's description of the Fog Creek office space.
cpr 18y ago
Funny you should mention that. I think the thing I miss the most about attending a well-known, old-school Ivy campus (long, long ago) was the nearly infinite amount of "available space" for study/just plain getting away by one's self, or hanging out with friends. There was the third-floor applied engineering library where no one ever went (where I often studied), the grad student "pen" in the basement of the computing center (this was a long time ago, when PDP-10's roamed the earth), the endless open classrooms in the science center, the mini-lounges on many floors of the chemistry building, to say nothing of the dozen-plus houses (dorms, though I was an off-campus student for the last 3 years), etc. I'd make a wild guess there might be on the order of magnitude of a million square feet of usually unoccupied, interesting, pleasant space on campus (which stretched for a over mile in some dimensions). (To say nothing of the many unlocked facilities like the small pipe organ in one of the dozens of performance halls, etc.) In some sense, access to that kind of space is the ultimate luxury, whether for work or play.

Xichekolas 18y ago

I blogged about this once in more detail (like you care), but I think workplaces would benefit greatly if they had zones that were analogous to those found in houses. House Office Bedroom/office/study Private Office Dining Room Small team collaboration spaces Living Room Common lounge Backyard/family room Whole company meeting room/auditorium People stay in their bedroom/study when they want privacy and the ability to concentrate. They hang out in living rooms and dining rooms when they want to see other people. When you have all your friends over, you most likely spend your time in the kitchen/family room/backyard. I don't see why your workplace should only have semi-private personal zones (bedrooms) or a single huge room (family room). No family would like a house with only bedrooms or only a family room, so why should employees like a workplace with only one type of room?

mhb 18y ago
Sounds like Joel's description of the Fog Creek office space.

cpr 18y ago

Funny you should mention that. I think the thing I miss the most about attending a well-known, old-school Ivy campus (long, long ago) was the nearly infinite amount of "available space" for study/just plain getting away by one's self, or hanging out with friends. There was the third-floor applied engineering library where no one ever went (where I often studied), the grad student "pen" in the basement of the computing center (this was a long time ago, when PDP-10's roamed the earth), the endless open classrooms in the science center, the mini-lounges on many floors of the chemistry building, to say nothing of the dozen-plus houses (dorms, though I was an off-campus student for the last 3 years), etc. I'd make a wild guess there might be on the order of magnitude of a million square feet of usually unoccupied, interesting, pleasant space on campus (which stretched for a over mile in some dimensions). (To say nothing of the many unlocked facilities like the small pipe organ in one of the dozens of performance halls, etc.) In some sense, access to that kind of space is the ultimate luxury, whether for work or play.