Workplace concept 2, The Hague

[Margaret and Rijk Rietveld]

Having been involved with not only traditional private cell office layouts, but also modern concepts where nobody has it's own desk any more, we realized that many organizations are moving away from the cell structure, but are not ready for the other extreme.

The Interpolis insurance company's long standing paperless concept, developed by Erik Veldhoen, where you will come to work and just find any place to sit down, have your phone and your laptop with you, has worked very well for most of the Interpolis organization. However, most of the organizations we are working for, do not have this "impersonal" kind of work character.

Very often, flexible work place concepts are misused to save space and costs, and are regularly based on short term thinking. Lower initial cost leads to loss of productivity, because some organizations are just not structured in the same way as Interpolis. Interpolis never tried to save money by condensing the work area. They still spend the same money per workplace as a traditional office, but because they reduced the number of necessary workplaces, they could invest more per workstation and add interesting work concepts like "lounges" and "clubhouses".

Our workplace concept 2 tries to develop a new condensed working concept for organizations that don't want to give up their personal desk, with their personal stacks and items, even though that desk might not have full time occupancy.