Design in Crisis: New Worlds, Philosophies, and Perspectives

Abstract

office and the real organizations shaped by an exclusionary, discriminatory, and highly secretive corporate culture” (166). In the past fifty years, designs for open offices have improved in terms of standards, accessibility, codes, and guidelines to keep office workers safe, productive, and well; but Kaufmann-Buhler is right in her insistence that organizations have a long way to go in appreciating individuality and accommodating diverse needs. Open plan offices can improve only if their creators acknowledge the real problems of discrimination and inequality that are embedded in organizational culture and reinforced and reproduced through the iterations of office design. Design history will benefit from more histories that, like this one, acknowledge peoples’ complex lived and sometimes fraught experiences with iconic, celebrated designs.