By Anna Gibertini
On September 13, Interior Design hosted the penultimate Workplace Roundtable of 2018, an industry-focused discussion on the latest trends in office design. In an intimate gathering at the magazine’s New York City headquarters, 28 designers and manufacturers discussed design solutions that positively impacted inclusivity either at their own firm or in a project, the ability of free-addressing to democratize the office, and the struggles the industry still faces in recruiting diverse talent. Interior Design managing editor Helene Oberman and contributing editor Jen Renzi moderated the conversation.
The conversation about free-addressing proved to be the meatiest, with some designers seeing it as a much-needed means of democratizing the workplace and more accurately reflecting the way business is conducted today. On a practical level, pro-free-addressing designers argued, private offices are wastes of expensive square-footage in the workplace and there are many new, better options for doing tasks that require privacy (e.g. using an in-office phone booth to conduct private calls). From a social perspective, free-addressing has the ability to elevate company culture through the breakdown of corporate hierarchy—essentially, it creates a feeling of “we’re all in this together”, they maintained.
But not everyone bought these arguments. Some attendees felt that free-addressing would make it easier for cliques to form and actually harm company culture.