Not everyone who goes into interior design is terribly interested in the commercial design industry. However, the people who are passionate about commercial design are the ones who are changing the definition of what an office can mean to its employees. The standard office designs that our parents and grandparents are used to are being done away with. There are a few different reasons that this is the case, mostly because the traditional office is a dull, dreary place with a negative stigma attached to it over years of media representations. The office of the future will be stimulating and conducive to promoting creative activity.
The developments in office partitions and the new ideas that are replacing the cubicle walls of the past can be seen and better understood when looking at the offices of companies like Google and Apple, whose office design is renowned for how inviting and stimulating it is, while simultaneously not distracting people from the important task at hand.
The idea of the cubicle as a way of providing everyone with their own work area made sense at the time, but it stifled collaborative study in the corporate environment. Yes, there are some industries, like telemarketing, when having a secluded work space is critical, since the number of phone calls being made mandates that each person be able to have their own conversation without interrupting their neighbors.
For anyone who works in an office environment, it is important that they are not stifled by the design of the room. Making sure that everyone’s ability to do their work without complication is important, but if the environment is dreary, the work that is performed will be dreary by association.