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“I think there is still added value in the fact that a university forms you in a certain way,
because you are there and meet other students.”
(Resp. 3)
Academic office workplaces need to be designed in a way that facilitates learning. Therefore it is
important to understand what is needed for people to learn. Currently, there are few inspirational
environments and many classical forms of education, that totally do not contribute to letting people
learn. The way of teaching is thus not aimed at learning or social contacts, which needs to be
facilitated by universities with the use of the environment (Resp. 7).
Globalization will influence the office workplace as well. The workplace knows an increasingly bigger
diversity of culture which must be taken into account in office design (Resp. 12; Resp. 14). Physically,
this mean supporting all cultures from the same work environment. Aesthetically, organizations
should look at different ideas and beliefs about what is found beautiful or ugly within the work
environment (Resp. 12).
Resp. 8 distinguishes major research universities versus community colleges, state colleges, and state
universities. Major research universities are less innovative compared to the latter, since major
research universities do not have to adapt to the changing world around them. Therefore, the
changes in major research universities will be mainly in the design of classrooms or places where
centers are organized. State universities, state colleges, and community colleges will perhaps have
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open plan offices, where faculty end up having less autonomy, power, influence, and prestige, and
are more guided by administrated decision then they are at a major research university (Resp. 8).
Others claim that the academic office workplace of the future will look exactly like in the current
situation; nothing will change (Resp. 6), since academics are very conservative (Resp. 14). Hereby is
referred to Oxford and Cambridge, where they currently still work as in the medieval times. Because
science happens inside your head, nothing needs to change in building design. Furthermore, open
work environments, as can be found in business organizations, are not functional given the work
activities of academics (Resp. 6). However, the final decision regarding the workplace is not made by
academics themselves (Resp. 14). More individualized functions, such as researchers, PhDers, or
post-docs, will make use of the possibilities provided by time and place independence of work more
frequently than a professor, who simply just needs to be sitting on his seat and be approachable
(Resp. 14).
Conclusion
While the majority of respondents have reported that the academic office workplace will change in
the future, they are not aligned about what this environment will look like. In the first and most
drastic scenario, the university as a physical appearance will disappear, since everything will become
digital. In the second, little less drastic scenario, there will be no more territorial offices, but the
university will still be there. Everything becomes open; students and teachers whirl around in the
same area. In this scenario, an academic organization needs to make sure that all types of work
activities are facilitated by different activity-based offices. The third scenario exists of combi-offices:
privately owned offices around the edge, with open, informal spaces in the middle. This center area
provides possibilities for social interaction, meetings, and collaboration, while the privately owned
offices ensure that people can do focus work as well. The fourth and last scenario assumes there is
no change in the academic office workplace of the future. Everything stays the same, since research
is performed in scientists’ mind, making changes in physical layout not necessary.
In general, respondents tend towards the second or third scenario. Public spaces thus become more
informal and focused on meetings, collaboration and knowledge sharing, but they disagree whether
offices will still be privately owned or not.
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