THE
HOLISTIC
OFFICE
I connect with architects,
planners, and decision
makers at universities,
corporations, and conferences, challenging them to
rethink the work and office
experience. I’m an evangelist
for office-related topics that
define the future. This keeps
me in a permanent dialogue
with our WorkSpace
Futures team and with
several external researchers
and masterminds.
Recently, my sphere has
become much larger and
more international. My
contacts have become more
and more interesting. I am
better connected within
Steelcase and externally—
my network expands by
itself now. My approach
has also changed. Instead
of simply sharing informa-
tion with my target group,
I raise fundamental and
often provocative questions,
like, Why do we always com-
pare offices with offices?
Robert Mokosch
project manager,
Architecture and Design
Marketing and Sales
ROSENHEIM, GERMANY
cutting-edge work solutions are
installed, tested, and refined. Here,
350 employees work in a constantly
evolving array of open offices—before
the gaze of more than 7,000 annual
visitors. Twenty percent of the three-
story facility is renovated each year.
Fewer than 40 percent of employees
here have permanent desks. While many
work face-to-face with their leaders,
about half of these workers are part of
teams whose leaders are based in Grand
Rapids. The Strasbourg WorkLab also
contributed to “Office Code,” a collec-
tion of case studies examining and
comparing work habits, space require-
ments, and economic trends around
the world. “In many ways, we’d like
to be like IBM,” says Georges Roux,
an architect and sales consultant at
Strasbourg. “Sure, our work is about
products. But it’s also about solutions—
in connecting workplaces across time
and space and generations.”
While Steelcase still realizes almost
70 percent of its revenues from North
America, its financial near future is
clearly cast onto the developing world,
where markets speed from zero to sixty
in a heartbeat, frequently leapfrogging
intermediate technologies to land on
the next new thing. But the company’s
identity—and ultimately its prosperity—
relies on its ability to channel both local
springs and global currents into custom
solutions that meet the rapidly evolving
needs of its clients around the world.
“The emerging workplace is all about
connections,” says Jim Keane. “
Face-to-face, and across the globe. But it’s
also about freedom. It’s tempting for
us to say we know what people need.
But our real job is to provide people
with a range of settings, and give them
a choice. That’s the way you unleash
the power of the workplace.”
