Roger Cunliffe

Great book. Great ideas and concepts.
Some fine examples of forward thinking companies who have grasped the potential of creating environments that inspire their workers by raising the quality of life for these fortunate individuals; who now won't be faced with the grim overshadowing prospect of spending the remainders of their productive lives trapped in artificially lit cube farms, drearily underacheiving, but being allowed to rot on the vine, while in other companies their counterparts flourish to become fine wines of notable character and revered by connoisseurs, which in turn maximises the companies profitability.
Sadly, although I have seen great amounts of cash thrown at this problem, few companies have come close to hitting the mark. On the other hand I've seen many more examples of good design carried out on restaurants and bars with far greater success. So, clearly it is achievable if the organisation puts human beings first as the catering industry clearly has to do.
I can only conclude that for most corporations, although no lack of expense has often been spared, either lack of vision or more likely the fact that you can't create something out of nothing has been the cause of their own failures in this area. If you move your call centre into the basement in order to showcase your new state of the art computer server room nearer the entrance to the building, then you have already made the choice, and there is little for the buildings designer to do faced with such odds, but to make the poor unfortunate souls as 'comfortable as possible'.

None the more for that, Santa Raymond and Roger Cunliffe's book stands as a shining example of what can be achieved with the right focus and a little artistic flair (even if Chiat/Day Advertising Inc.'s New York office did look more like a scene from the Korova Milk Bar in Stanley Kubric's film Clockwork Orange. ;)… (mer)