Ledger 13 - Office Space
I have to write a thesis this year since it's the final round of my degree and I'm not looking forward to it. I have never written anything close to 40 pages of content, it's not my training and that excessive length is far beyond my comfort zone. I want to scream WHY in the halls just to protest to ungodly quantity of fluff sentences I'll have to produce. I'll bitch about that process a bit later.
The topic I'm writing on though really gets my brain going and it's constantly challenging the way I consider space in my everyday. I wrote a preliminary pre-paper (really I just vomited sources and information all over the page) but I'll attach it to this post if anyone's interested, my dear few readers that probably don't read these) to learn more about how space affects, encourages or inhibits behaviors or success in the classroom and other work spaces.
I had a ridiculously tough time teaching this semester and for weeks I was tearing myself up over it, but I came to realize it wasn't me. It was the classrooms. Previously, I've taught in standard, fairly modular and adaptable classrooms. Separate desks for each student, a movable podium for me, a projector for all of us. Easy! Fast forward to this past semester, and I taught in one lecture hall big enough to be a theater and another class so small and immovable. It really fucked the year for lack of a better way to say that.
Comp 1 only has about 18-22 students a class, if you put that few kids, including the ones who regularly skip, I was teaching in a void. My lectures, their sparse answers and even the sounds of them shifting in their seats were swallowed up by the vast space around us. Each student sat so far from the next they didn't start having casual conversation until the LAST WEEK OF CLASS. You're probably thinking at this point, well, the smaller class should be better right??
Wrong. This room was populated with tier seating, so the students weren't even level with each other. The tables were also 4 varying heights and they were bolted to the ground. When I attempted to facilitate group activities or discussions, the students were immediately filled with liquid hate at the moment of the request. I experienced so much resistance I cut the class a week short and skipped presentations (which they loved anyway) simply because I knew the rooms would be saturated to the brim with awkwardness so thick you could bottle and sell the shit.
If you're still with me, you may be getting the inklings of what I'm getting at. The university, in its planning stages, didn't really take into account the types of learning the rooms would be housing. My university values community, discussion and collaboration. In those rooms, it was impossible to uphold these values. What I seek to argue in my thesis is that we must design classrooms as a tool for the class, rather than just a mundane housing unit. The overall goals of the course can absolutely be inhibited by the shit shape of a room. But of course, I'll be writing this in more academic language. Note to self, write about the nuances of academic writing.
I recently just began a position in the corporate world. Hence the title of this ledger. I have been settled here for a month and already I've been warned of a restack - this means that the departments will be shuffled around to account for the new building. My team will likely lose the amazing office space we've been working in. Our space is open, without distinct cubicles (however, I do reside in a corner office, so it's a bit curbized but it's tolerably connected with the office) and with that we work very well together. By functioning in an open space, questions flow easily and conversation leads to problem solving. I've heard they're moving us to a strictly cubicle setting which would be generally detrimental to this team's success. Our office space is threatened and with the loss of it, the loss of our office "culture".
There are of course ways to re-claim closeness with officemates and inventive ways to "make the best of it" but I emphasize that any place of work or learning should try to build their values into their designs. In doing this, the values can follow through without disruption and I argue, be retained more efficiently than a university or workplace that says, "work together!!" but only provides shitty, isolating spaces to do so.