Spatial patterns in the workplace can promote vital collaboration and interaction. Based on this thinking (along with some simple economics), the open office floor plan has superseded the long tradition of hierarchical space (corner office, formal conference rooms). At JENSEN, a decade designing within the open office typology has prompted new focus on spatial nuance of workplace design: places of “prospect and refuge” that afford a balance of collaboration and privacy, group interaction and focused undisturbed thinking.
These diagrams summarize this evolution. Perimeter closed-offices with light and views (1) become open workstations around the perimeter (2). Later, an approach common in many of JENSEN’s projects, distributes shared meeting spaces to divide the open office into “neighborhoods” (3). Today, technology and mobile devices allow work to happen everywhere, inside and outside of the office, creating both challenges and opportunities for the physical office (4). The new offices for Goodby Silverstein and Partners reflects this new condition and JENSEN’s current thinking about a nuanced workplace.
Johnson Wax Headquarters, Frank Lloyd Wright. 1939. (2)
Playtime, Jacques Tati, 1967. VHS. (3)


