New Work

Citizen Office 2018 Vitra Campus

Architects: Sevil Peach & Laura Kummer. "The Citizen Office project began in 1991. Initiated by Vitra, Andrea Branzi, Michele de Lucchi and Ettore Sottsass sat down together and began contemplating "the office". They developed strategies of change that aimed to do away with the limitations set by one-dimensional office environments. They came up with an alternative, which later became the subject of an exhibition at the VitraDesignMuseum, as well as a publication that presented "the office" from the viewpoint of office workers – who use the latest communication technologies, network and who move independently in many different types of office scenarios at different times. The aim was to create an office environment that was alive, that facilitated interaction and that did not draw any distinctions between working and living.
Today, ideas from this project can be found applied – to differing degrees based on the work culture – to offices around the world. Not because the exhibition or the book was so influential, but because we and the three designers anticipated something that would become a mega-trend and redefine the offices of the information society: the office worker as an independent and self-confident team player. We call these workers "office citizens", and they work in an environment where hierarchies are getting flatter and new technological advances play a central role in communication.
During the past two decades Vitra has continued to follow the developments that the "Citizen Office" project presented. New products and office concepts have been – and still are – the result of the changing needs of both companies and (especially) their employees.
Developing office work practices is a continual process, and this means that there will never be a final "Citizen Office". Instead, change is constantly taking place on many different levels: technically, organizationally and socially.
Citizen Office 2011 is a stocktaking of the current state of offices, and presents Vitra’s recommendations on how new concepts and products can be applied to today’s office environments to meet all kinds of office needs.
Quotations
"During the course of our investigations […] we did not focus on desks and chairs, but rather on the social aspects involved in work. […] What we came up with was Citizen Office: an office that gains a ‘civil’ role within a public company. We believe that society should not be allowed to disappear from companies. Instead, companies must strive to become integrated into society. Our project does not aim to reconstruct a fabricated and superficial world. We want to create an office that is truly open to real life".
Andrea Branzi, Designer, in "Citizen Office – Ideas and Notes on a New Office Environment", 1994
"Work is always much more than just completing set processes. Not just because so-called individual needs need to be met, but also in order to simply ensure that things function the way they should. Communication and cooperation, controversy and criticism, and new ideas all need space, social and mental freedom and generosity to flourish".
Uta Brandes, Prof. for Gender and Design, in "Citizen Office – Ideas and Notes on a New Office Environment", 1994