ABSTRACT
On one of the smartest street comers in Paris, at 55 Avenue George V, close to the Champs Elysées, busy management consultants file in and out of the new European headquarters o f Andersen Consulting. This building is not renowned just for its close proximity to some of the finest restaurants in Paris, nor special because it has been speculatively designed by well-known French architect Jean Wilmotte - with seven floors fitting around a semi-circular atrium in an awkward triangular plan. The real reason why the Andersen Consulting headquarters has attracted so much attention has been its interior space-planning by British architect Andrew Chadwick. Or perhaps we should say interior space-time-planning. Chadwick is a pioneer of what he describes as ‘space you need for the time you need it’ . He has been working with Andersen Consulting since 1990, initially in London and then in Paris, on ways to free the company from ‘the straitjacket of space ownership’ .
