1973: The Modern Office | Office | BBC Archive

Offices have changed a great deal since the days of Charles Dickens - or have they? A recent survey of over 700 offices across the UK by The Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff (APEX) has found that many offices in Britain are thoroughly inadequate. When you consider that most working people actually spend more time in the office than they do in their homes, shouldn't we put more thought into the office environment? Jack Britton presents this look at some of the thinking guiding modern office design in the 1970s, which will hopefully consign Dickensian working conditions to the past, where they belong.

The winner of the 1971 Office of the Year award was the new Bournemouth office of Norman Frizzell at Frizzell House, where a "landscaped" approach to the office has been employed. What do the people who work there think about it? In the studio, Managing Director Mike Graham discusses the pros and cons of both open plan and landscaped offices, with Ted Bridges of Cadbury Schweppes and Roy Grantham from APEX.

Landscaping makes sense for newly built office buildings, but it isn't always practical when rennovating an old building. American inventor Robert Propst, the President of the Herman Miller Research Corporation, explains how to make the best use of existing office spaces using his modular "action office" system.

Finally, Sue Dubois gives Jack a glimpse of the office of the future, a completely portable office that can fit in your briefcase - there's even room for sandwiches.

Clip taken from Office: A Place to Work, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 13 March, 1973.

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