ABSTRACT
Designer Sevil Peach of Sevil Peach Gence Associates faced a difficult brief to create a plan to foster greater teamwork, communication and interaction, but without forgoing first principles of privacy and quiet. Amsterdam-based Uxus Design uses lighting as a lever to aid concentration in its studio environment. An open-plan office designed by Ann-Charlotte Nilsson for a Swedish IT consultancy in the centre of Stockholm creates an effective workspace for sustained concentration by considered use of furniture. The leading psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has written widely on the 'optimal experience' of creative enjoyment and total involvement with certain types of work. However design practitioners are often diverted by the rival demands of teamwork and collaboration in designing work environments. Betty Jackson describes her working environment clearly one in which there are protocols in place to enable creative focus on the act of designing fashion clothing. Relatively inexpensive steps to provide spaces for older knowledge workers to undertake tasks that require sustained focus.
