Computer Hard Disk as Metaphor for Fluid Office Environment

Bill Mitchell of MIT sees the operation of a computer's hard disk space as a metaphor for how new office space will operate in the era of ubiquitous connectivity. The problem with today's office environment is that as change occurs over time--people moving, conversion of conference rooms into offices--the circulation efficiency within a building's rigid structure tends to degrade as the original design and layout is unable to easily adapt. He equates this degradation process to that of the fragmentation of a computer's hard-disk space.

"The initial layout may be carefully organized to minimize unnecessary circulation, but patterns of demand gradually change and some of the initially programmed uses are no longer relevant. But there is no equivalent to running a utility to clean up your computer's disk space."

In the new building paradigm, office interiors will be designed with a few broadly defined categories of spaces that are flexible. Like locations in computer memory, locations within these spaces can be assigned based on use and then immediately freed up for other needs. This would deliver much greater efficiency of space. Spaces that would otherwise be assigned as private offices don't have to be vacant while their occupants are in meeting spaces, for example, and inefficient layouts don't have to be maintained because they are too slow, difficult, and costly to change.

But how will workers know when work spaces are available, or where? Mitchell believes the solution is mobile connectivity. A system could employ sensor technology to keep track of currently occupied desks and, via mobile devices, direct new arrivals to them.