Architects against Employees. The Harsh Law of the Office Furniture Market: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Environment is a key variable in humans’ life. Offices make no exception to this rule. Evidence shows that employees’ wellbeing derives also from the physical and emotional features that compose the workplace. Too little concern is given to the words and needs of those individuals who actually live the office, and too much attention is still addressed toward architects’ estrus. A deep furrow of communication and interaction between employees and management and architects outlines a clear separation between functionality and aesthetics within the office walls. This work aims to understand the deepest meanings that each of the parties composing the consumer in the office furniture market gives to the office, and presents suggestions to balance any bias between such meanings. In so doing few essential features that must coexist in a workspace in order to reach an overall wellbeing and harmoniousness have been highlighted directly from parties’ experiences. By pulling all the features together, suggestions are made looking forward to break down several prejudices still strongly bounded to the concept of office, and to embrace a more open and interactive way of living the office from both sides of the consumer.