A History of the Office and Office Work: From Castle to Condominium

This book brings together the office and office working as an economic construct, as a business function, as a building type and as a mode of work. It explores social and economic relations, and it traces the evolution of work and the environment and equipment needed to support it over the last 400 years. In so doing, it helps to fill a void in popular understanding of the office.

The role of the office has been examined over the past three years in ways that it has never been examined before. Whilst the existential crisis arising from COVID-19 has settled somewhat, there remain big questions over the future of office workers and office real estate. This book is a timely, well-researched and fascinating contribution to the debate.

Rob Harris explores how the nature of work has changed, and continues to change, placing the events surrounding COVID-19 into a longer-term perspective and asking what is the future of the office? Will it go through a radical reinvention? How will office work evolve in the future? Whither office buildings? The book emphasises the continuum of change and that today’s events are simply the latest stage of change, rather than something entirely novel.

This book will be of interest to anyone with a stake in the built environment, whether as an investor, occupier, owner, manager or advisor. It is equally accessible to those with a non-technical background, including students on courses such as economic history, economics, geography, real estate and urban planning.

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. His interests and experience range from advising occupiers on their use of space to the urban policies that help shape future cities: from the ’workstation to the city region’. Rob started work at design practice DEGW in the early 1980s, where he contributed to innovative work on new developments including Broadgate in the City of London and Stockley Park, Heathrow. He worked at surveyors DTZ and Gerald Eve in a research capacity, and he was director of research at Stanhope Properties plc in the 1990s. He established Ramidus Consulting Limited in 2003 as a specialist, independent built environment research and advisory business. Rob has a wealth of research experience that has involved projects throughout the property process, including design, development, management, investment and occupation. He has been involved in establishing and running a number of industry groups, including CoreNet UK, Federation of Corporate Real Estate, Society of Property Researchers and Workplace Consulting Organisation. Rob presents widely on a range of property market issues, and he has published industry reports recently for the British Council for Offices, Corporation of London, Greater London Authority, Investment Property Forum and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.