Designing the Office

Listen / Download

The office is a neighborhood in itself – it’s got gossips, bullies, leaders and followers. And it’s a culture that’s grown with the times – from punch clocks to in-office basketball courts.

Take a peek over the cubicle wall, or open the door of your corner office: we’re lifting the roof off and looking at the ins and outs of office design. Today’s fast-speed corporate culture talks in the language of collaboration and efficiency, log-in and dress-down – but maybe in the end it all comes down to lay-out, — to furniture, lighting and coffee machines.

The corporate office is a social space, and we’re the guinea pigs under fluorescent lights. What’s makes one employee go “postal,” and helps another climb the ladder? We’re knocking on the boss’s door and finding out how design affects the culture of the workplace.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)

Guests:

Karen Stephenson, corporate anthropologist

Donald Albrecht, curator of “Design and the American Office” at the National Building Museum in Washington DC

and Mark Margulies, architect

Scott Adams, Cartoonist (Dilbert)

The Agenda

Want to know what’s coming up on the air and on the website?

Sign up to receive email updates.

You’ll get advance information about The Connection as well as updates about the latest web-only features.

The Connection Archives

Art & Architecture

Society & Culture

Education

Environment

Film

Food

Health

History

International

Literature