A History of the Office and Office Work by Harris, Rob;

Short description:

This book brings together the office and office working as an economic construct, as a business function, as a building type and as a mode of work. It explores social and economic relations, and it traces the evolution of work and the environment and equipment needed to support it over the last four hundred years.

Long description:

This book brings together the office and office working as an economic construct, as a business function, as a building type and as a mode of work. It explores social and economic relations, and it traces the evolution of work and the environment and equipment needed to support it over the last 400 years. In so doing, it helps to fill a void in popular understanding of the office.

The role of the office has been examined over the past three years in ways that it has never been examined before. Whilst the existential crisis arising from COVID-19 has settled somewhat, there remain big questions over the future of office workers and office real estate. This book is a timely, well-researched and fascinating contribution to the debate.

Rob Harris explores how the nature of work has changed, and continues to change, placing the events surrounding COVID-19 into a longer-term perspective and asking what is the future of the office? Will it go through a radical reinvention? How will office work evolve in the future? Whither office buildings? The book emphasises the continuum of change and that today’s events are simply the latest stage of change, rather than something entirely novel.

This book will be of interest to anyone with a stake in the built environment, whether as an investor, occupier, owner, manager or advisor. It is equally accessible to those with a non-technical background, including students on courses such as economic history, economics, geography, real estate and urban planning.

"In taking us from ‘castle’ to ‘condominium’, Rob Harris takes us on a journey that might be seen as circular in nature. We start with private banks in grand residences and arrive in the era of home working assisted by Artificial Intelligence. In moving from ‘market’ to ‘factory’ to ‘corporate’ to ‘digital’ – the four office ages described in the book – we are given a rigorously researched expert view of not just how the office and office work has developed over time but how it might fare in the future." 

Jeremy Myerson, Professor Emeritus, Royal College of Art; Chairman, WORKTECH Academy  

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements

List of figures

About the author

Foreword by Jeremy Myerson

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1       Perspectives on offices                                                               

Part I           1670–1770: building blocks of the office economy

Chapter 2       The basis of trading                                                                              

Chapter 3       A new economy of mercantilist capitalism 

Part II          1770–1870: bank house to office building

Chapter 4       Banking business                                                            

Chapter 5       Clerking: laborious and monotonous                                     

Chapter 6       Offices take shape                          

Part III         1870–1945: the white collar factory

Chapter 7       A new organisation of society          

Chapter 8       Gentleman all-rounder to office worker                   

Chapter 9       The machine age                                            

Chapter 10     Cultural and rational filing cases               

Part IV         1945–1990: the corporate office

Chapter 11     Blitz to Big Bang                                      

Chapter 12     New environments for working                         

Chapter 13     Three centuries of change: from clerk to nomad       

Part V          1990 onwards: the digital office and beyond

Chapter 14     The digital office                            

Chapter 15     The office in the network era