Industry standards suggest the redesign of office environments every 7 to 10 years, managerial strategies change every 5 years and employee turnover every 2 years. These cycles are in stark opposition to the lifespan of building materials, which can last thousands of years.In addition to reassuring clients and investors of their stability,
offices are increasingly spaces of explicit wellbeing and happiness, of social interaction, and persistently heightened financial expectations. The workspace becomes the centre of our lives as the offi ce has ceased to be a discrete entity remote from home.
offices are increasingly spaces of explicit wellbeing and happiness, of social interaction, and persistently heightened financial expectations. The workspace becomes the centre of our lives as the offi ce has ceased to be a discrete entity remote from home.
The contribution for the Oslo Triennale will focus on the aging of iconic, at one time exemplary office buildings. Our preliminary research shows that some of these buildings have aged much better than others. Where some still look relatively untouched, some are barely recognizable after just 30 years. We hardly know anything about what drives the changes that occur in these buildings and what could be learned from their lifetime?
The contribution will build physical models for a selected number of cases showing the amount of building waste per building over its lifetime and what is left of the original buidling. It will conduct investigative research for a larger number of cases with new before-after photography, archive research and interviews, which will be presented in a large photobook with captions and/or video. These results will be used to speculate on strategies for degrowth in office environments which will be shared with the visitors.