1st Edition
A History of the Office and Office Work From Castle to Condominium
Acknowledgements
List of figures
About the author
Foreword by Jeremy Myerson
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 Perspectives on offices
Part I 1670–1770: building blocks of the office economy
Chapter 2 The basis of trading
Chapter 3 A new economy of mercantilist capitalism
Part II 1770–1870: bank house to office building
Chapter 4 Banking business
Chapter 5 Clerking: laborious and monotonous
Chapter 6 Offices take shape
Part III 1870–1945: the white collar factory
Chapter 7 A new organisation of society
Chapter 8 Gentleman all-rounder to office worker
Chapter 9 The machine age
Chapter 10 Cultural and rational filing cases
Part IV 1945–1990: the corporate office
Chapter 11 Blitz to Big Bang
Chapter 12 New environments for working
Chapter 13 Three centuries of change: from clerk to nomad
Part V 1990 onwards: the digital office and beyond
Chapter 14 The digital office
Chapter 15 The office in the network era
Biography
Rob Harris is a consultant and analyst in the commercial real estate sector, where he has spent over three decades advising developers, investors, occupiers and public sector bodies. He established Ramidus Consulting Limited in 2003 as a specialist, independent built environment research and advisory business. Rob presents widely on a range of property market issues.
"In taking us from ‘castle’ to ‘condominium’, Rob Harris takes us on a journey that might be seen as circular in nature. We start with private banks in grand residences and arrive in the era of home working assisted by Artificial Intelligence. In moving from ‘market’ to ‘factory’ to ‘corporate’ to ‘digital’ – the four office ages described in the book – we are given a rigorously researched expert view of not just how the office and office work has developed over time but how it might fare in the future."
Jeremy Myerson, Professor Emeritus, Royal College of Art; Chairman, WORKTECH Academy
