A couple workspaces from this past week; new photos, old thoughts.

I’ve long been fascinated by how culture appropriates technology and shapes our physical environment, and lately my attention has focused on how we live and work in public.

Workspace, Luray, Virginia

Home may sound like a great, peaceful workspace, but too many days working at home by yourself is a guarantee for a mental disaster. Better options exist, trust me.

Away from home, as I’ve traveled around the US, Europe and Japan over the past year I’ve faced a daily struggle to find a place to work everyday. The biggest things I’ve learned? Conserve power to give yourself flexibility, public libraries are fantastic, earphones are a necessity, and get comfortable with distractions and change. One day’s oasis is often another day’s disaster.

Workspace, Long John Silver’s, Luray, Virginia

Long John Silver’s: not the ideal third place, but not bad for a day in a pinch.

I’m not sure why I’m surprised to public wifi at more and more places today. Granted, it’s not for everything; Bill Simmons:

There are four acceptable public Wi-Fi usages in a restaurant or coffeehouse and only four: checking e-mail; reading columns, blogs or news stories; changing a fantasy team; Googling a hot waitress or barista. That’s it.

But there’s one use Bill doesn’t mention: actual, real work. And it’s something many of us perform using public wifi in third places everyday. My question: as more people work outside the traditional office structure, how will our physical workspaces adapt?

The broader questions are around the next wave of cultural, technology and design shifts. If traditional third-places, the refuges from home and work, are inundated with people busily working, will a new type of third-place emerge?

Will we see coffee shops requiring people to turn cell phones off, or to not use computers?

Will floor layout, power plug accessibility, and table layout change to either restrict workers or segment workers to a different section of the place?

Will coffee shops and other public lounges begin to differentiate, market themselves as purely relaxing places?

My thought on all of the above: yes.

And closely related: how will our workspaces adapt as our population ages?

Workspace, Arlington Central Library, Arlington, Virginia

Offices serve a purpose. The physical emptiness * often obscures the emotional and intellectual richness they contain. How much can we really tell about the kind of work done in a workspace by its physical environment?

* Full gallery of a project about an office workspace, to be exhibited Jan 2010.

Also: a couple workspaces from the recent road…