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messaging enabled by the internet, or video conferencing). We
already have convenient and efficient virtual space. In response,
physical space is becoming increasingly symbolic and more
concerned with an engagement of the senses.
It’s critical to realise that even when you’re in a virtual world,
you’re located in physical space – you’re sitting on something,
for instance. Space is now experienced in both virtual and
physical terms. This key diagram from the SANE (Sustainable
Accommodation for the New Economy) research project for the
European Commission explores characteristics of the physical
and virtual spaces that people occupy, and analyses the transition
towards work taking place in what we call ‘public’ and ‘privileged’
or ‘invited’ access spaces, where there isn’t boundary control, or
Google, London, by DEGW – a workplace that celebrates even necessarily ownership, by an organisation Figure 1.2. These
creativity and symbolises Google’s values through its design. spaces are about people mixing together in different configurations,
Photo: Chris Gascoigne/VIEW and about supporting the work process in a flexible way with a
range of virtual tools.
Figure 1.2 The distributed workplace It’s an exciting time. DEGW is moving forward with its clients to help
them think about space in a different way. Corporate spaces are
Virtual Physical
evolving from what we call ‘offices as the city’, where the private,
Knowledge Private: Home office privileged and public characteristics of space are pulled together
systems protected access, into a single envelope, towards the ‘city as the office’, which
individual or
involves multiple locations and increased use of shared workplaces.
collabortative
workspace
This transition is akin to an explosion of workspaces outside the
office building, and means that we need to support work wherever
it now takes place. For clients, increases in the use of shared,
Knowledge Privileged: Clubs, airport
communities invited access, lounges distributed workplaces mean moving from fixed-cost long-lease
collaborative structures to a much more dynamic, complex world of variable
project and costs and new ways of procuring space. In the corporate world the
meeting space process of establishing a strategy for the future is well underway.

Internet sites Public: Café, hotel,
open access, airports, parks
informal
interaction and
workspace

4 What can education learn from the corporate world?