“Workplace,” the latest documentary from director Gary Hustwit, had a run of screenings at the Architecture & Design Film Festival last week. As the most recent entry in Hustwit’s series of design-focused films — preceded by the popular “Helvetica” as well as “Objectified” and “Urbanized” — it presents another opportunity to watch the director and his team dive into a discipline in a way that is both highly esoteric and highly accessible. Premiered at the Venice Biennale earlier this year, the film will be released by the director online later this fall.
Gary Hustwit’s series of design documentaries; via CO.DESIGN
Taken as a whole, the strongest selling point of Hustwit’s design films is the ease with which they present parts of an industry that have an invisible effect on nearly everyone in a manner that is interesting to both designers and the general public. In “Workplace,” the filmmakers are faced with the task of translating the significance of an office design project — Foster + Partners’ relocation of the digital advertising agency R/GA into two empty floors on the West Side of Manhattan — for a potentially wide audience.
“ … A welcome embrace of reality compared to the approach of popular media, which frequently depicts entire projects as if they were completed in a single day.”
The film is structured to follow this project chronologically from start to finish, punctuated by breaks to hear progressive bits of history on the evolution of office design — delivered by Nikil Saval, author of Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace — as well as two short tours of completed office projects meant to represent the leading edge of spatial practices in the workplace: Yelp, by Studio O+A, and Etsy, by Gensler.
With a runtime of 77 minutes, the use of this broken rhythm successfully imparts the considerable length of time inherent in a building project — a welcome embrace of reality compared to the stereotypical approach of popular renovation-themed media, which frequently depicts entire projects as if they were completed in a single day. The filmmakers must have been aware of the limited appeal of this focus, though, because Saval’s miniature history lessons stand out as the most interesting parts. An aside about the invention of the first cubicle design — originally intended to boost collaborative work but quickly appropriated by managers to pack the greatest number of employees into the smallest possible footprint — is especially noteworthy.
R/GA Office in New York; via Baress
One of the more fascinating aspects of the film is the surprising level of transparency it offers into the working process of Foster + Partners. The study methods of R/GA’s spatial-use patterns will engage most designers, even if they fail to capture the attention of a general audience. The eventual translation of these studies into a bi-level plan using a centralized, multidirectional stair to connect enclosed meeting spaces below with an open-plan collection of desks and tables above should make sense to most.
“Foster himself shows up only once in the film, very briefly, and only to produce the sketch that is later derided in his absence.”
For the most part, the design process of this project is kept story-worthy with the presentation of only enough working sessions to communicate a series of major decisions and project phases, though most design professionals will recognize that it is being cut only to the 10 percent of “yes” meetings that typically occur over a project’s life. While this reduction is understandable to prevent a sense of tedium, it would be nice to see more of the conflict inherent in design work, which otherwise crops up only once, when a Foster + Partners’ team member balks at a sketch by asking the group if they’d really like to work in the space it depicts.
Curiously enough, Foster himself shows up only once in the film, very briefly, and only to produce the sketch that is later derided in his absence. This is a notable break from stories surrounding the firms of famous architects, as they often attempt to work the single-creator myth for all it’s worth with a heavy emphasis on the star designer. In this sense, the film seems to believe its message that attitudes toward greater collaboration and a flattening of hierarchy are taking hold in the professional world.
R/GA’s central stair, via Forbes
How far this message is reflected in the project documented is less clear. The film reaches its predictable climax on the first day the office opens for business (filled with gratuitous slow-pan shots of the space in use), but even with a host of post-occupancy interviews, the project’s emblematic status of trendsetter is difficult to discern. While the film covers the design of an office with relatively new patterns of use, the result still looks like a white-walled workspace in Midtown Manhattan. A lack of differentiation in this area works to the detriment of the film, stunting its ability to craft a larger comment on the direction of office design.
Despite the drawback of a marginally compelling example subject, the film’s ambience, solidly in line with the signature style of Hustwit’s design series, will likely please anyone interested enough to watch it — and leave them hoping the series will continue.
Top image via Gary Hustwit