The new desk (or no desk)

Some drawings about desks that have been brewing for a little while.

The desk, in the 20th century sense, is an industrial age compromise created by clerical paperwork and bulky fixed technology such as typewriters. It enabled the routine processing of paper-based information, from in-tray via typewriter and rubber stamp to out-tray, with associated banks of filing cabinets. The arrival of computers made little difference as long as the technology remained heavy and the information was printed. The desk enabled Taylorist management and workflow methods by fixing everyone's location in the machinery.

But now, at last, the tide of paper is retreating. And if you don't need a desk to put your paperwork on, or to carry your devices, and you're seldom there anyway, why have a desk?

The desk is still a default spaceholder when planning an office. The assumption is that people need a desk some of the time, so by giving everyone a desk we have at least ensured that they can all work. But if the desk and its associated floor area is simply a space allocation for a person, why does it have to contain a desk? It may not be the best or most needed furniture for the way a particular person works now. Which loops back to an idea I had a long time ago (though drawn in 2014). (And it's Covid-safe!)

For the last decade and more, we have been implementing desk-sharing ratios (note that this still assumes a desk for most work) so that we can add other kinds of workspace. But the emphasis is still on desk provision - get those in first, and the rest happens in whatever space is left over. Has the time come to reverse this? Put in all the agile, collaborative and focus work settings, and put some desks in the residual spaces. For occasional or specialist use only.

In the paperless portable-tech office, the key surface is not horizontal (to put paper and technology on) but vertical, to display information (on screen or whiteboard). We might invent a new 'desk', like the old one flipped up, to put into our personal space allocation. The emphasis on display and connection make it more collaborative, to suit more social work styles. If we need privacy, we go to a pod. Or go home.