ABSTRACT
When United Airlines flight 175 slammed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center at 9.05 a.m. on September 11, 2001, many people, architects and office users alike, thought that tall buildings would quickly go the way of the luckless dodo. Some critics used the tragic deaths of the office workers to predict the death of the skyscraper office tower. After all, safety aspects aside, why should a seemingly intelligent species gather willingly in concentrations known only to battery chicken farmers, for eight, ten or even twelve hours a day, five days a week? We were then, and still are, bombarded every day by dozens of images extolling the virtues of information technology and the alleged freedom it brings for us to work how, where and when we choose. The life of every person living today in the developed world has been transformed by the ubiquitous computer; mobile phones facilitate communication practically anywhere and any time, electronic banking allows us to complete financial transactions online whenever and from wherever we like, wireless networks provide access to worldwide information from our corner coffee bar, and iPods provide us with entertainment “on the hoof.” When one can work comfortably from home, the bar, or the beach, why do we need to spend hours traveling to congested city centers, wasting valuable time and polluting the air in order to work for several hours in sterile environments?
