Cold Cathode Lighting

I believe that cold cathode lighting would probably be the best choice to put in the light fittings in the office, along with halogen lamps to provide stronger light, the combination of the two could create an interesting effect.

Cold cathode lights have a longer life than fluorescent tubes making them more desirable for maintenance-free long-life applications. They also do not contain mercury vapour which makes them

easier to dispose of and more environmentally friendly.

The colour used would be pure white, to create artificial lighting as close to natural light as possible.

Daylight Lamps could also be used for on desk application.

Cool Hunter.net

I have been browsing through www.thecoolhunter.net on the advise of the visiting lecturers and found some pretty cool office designs. So here they are.

Modular desking system - Syzygy Agency by eins:eins Achitecten

Tighe Architectures futuristic design for The Moving Picture Company. Very minimal use of colour, i like the way that the lights are integrated into walls.

Crea Internationals design for a modern bank called CheBanca!

I especially like the use of units in this one and the minimal use of colour, but it seems

a bit too artificial to be a comfortable working environment, again it looks rather futuristic.

Small Offices Book

I took out a book from the library entitled Small Offices by evergreen.

Here are some designs that i found fairly inspirational to my design.

The Bartle Bogle Hegarty office in japan by Klien Dytham is in some ways similar

my curved rectilinear forms (although cut in half).

I particularly like the white lacquered finish.

The way the conference table is made in this very interesting and reflects on japanese culture due to the unusual seating arrangement.

Sadly this interesting little office was shut in 2008 as it was only temporary in nature.

Another office of interest was Fast Forward by Propeller Z due to its modular nature and the way it plays with positive and negative forms. All the parts of the fittings come from one rectangular box with shapes cut out of it, the shapes are then repositioned in other rooms with the main shape being left as the main office arrangement. It is very minimal yet stylish.

The last office of interest was called Fred. Fred was made by Oskar Leo Kaufmann.

It is a small single unit office that is expandable. it measures 10ft x 10ft x 10ft when closed

and extends up to 710ft. It does this through the use of rails.

It is easy to transport and relocate and just needs to be hooked up to the facilities when in place.

Furnishings are built in.

Mobile Powered Systems

For the modular desks that can be moved around the floor on tracks like library shelving units

they would need to be powered somehow, this would be an appropriate solution!

Modular units can be powered using a track that supplies power to the units much like

these library shelving systems.

http://www.montel.com/eng/products/Mobile_Shelving_Systems/wired/wired_high_density_powered_mobile_shelving_storage_powered_movable_storage.htm

	PowerTrack™ ground embedded wiring
	(Patent No.: 6,845,721) Building on its innovative capabilities, the WIRED™'s new PowerTrack™ was developed to optimize space conservation by concealing the power wiring in the floor tracks, thus eliminating dangling scissor arms or pantographs between the mobile units. The new PowerTracks™

Tokyo

Tokyo, as a city is very vibrant with an awful lot of signage and buildings in a very small space, i'd like to perhaps take this idea of putting alot (perhaps modules) into the office space to make the most efficient use of the space, while making each module unique and separate from each other to create a vibrant and inspiring office space.

Inspirational images

I have been researching communities for the GIDE design project to find some sort of basis for my design and came across the ideas of utopia and dystopia, now dystopian architecture is very prominant in films and computer games, such as Blade Runners Los Angeles, Akiras Neo Tokyo and Half Life 2's City 17, so i decided to start by looking at these to get some inspiration for the office concept drawings.

Akira - Neotokyo


Metropolis Anime

Neotokyo mod for half-life 2

Half-Life 2's City 17

Bladerunner's Los Angeles + Apartment

As you can see, these bleak city scapes are actually brimming with life and a sense of community, albiet a dystopian one, the authority or situation actually causes these people to band together creating a lively cityscape with lots of intricate detail (thanks mainly to film makers and game designers). The apartment in Bladerunner is actually based on Frank Lloyd Wrights

"Ennis House" which gives it an anchor to reality compared to some of the more futuristic skyscrapers. Half-lifes City 17 has a very distinct eastern european feel to it, again under the oppression from an authority based in the large, towering skyscraper in the center of the city. (possibly based on the ziggurat from metropolis?)

I will also be looking into Utopian architecture as part of the positive / negative concept.