Designed to Work

The 120-degree angle is critical because it replaces the boxed-in feeling of traditional systems with a sense of openness. Most cubicles, which are built at 90-degree angles, fail to accommodate computers in their design. So workers end up moving their terminals into a corner in order to create enough of a work surface. Besides forcing people into corners like disobedient children, that geometry also discourages collaboration, because two or more people can't work comfortably at the same screen. The wider 120-degree angle opens up the workstation, says Birsel, as though someone were welcoming you with outstretched arms. The desk mirrors that angle, so the work surface follows the natural sweep of your hands to the side.

In conventional systems, the architecture of the interior often mimics the architecture of the overall space; cubicles are boxes within the larger box of the building. Resolve has no right angles, so squares or rectangles are impossible to create. The 120-degree angle feels more organic -- because it is. "It's nature's favorite angle," Birsel explains. The workstations are even configured in organic patterns, called "constellations," that are named to describe each shape: full honey (as in honeycomb), robot, delta, zigzag, snowflake, lobster, grapevine.

Unlike traditional grids, Resolve's numerous configurations provide more flexibility in floor plans, and Duffy estimates that they create about 20% more space. But he insists that the various arrangements don't encourage greater density but instead create workstations that feel more spacious. "Our biggest challenge is probably to teach the world not to plan on a grid," says Duffy. "Even though that's what everybody is comfortable doing."

Resolve also reclaims wasted space, such as the area above the four-foot-high cubicles. The overhead cable troughs connect a cluster of workstations and define small groups. A rail beneath the trough can be used to display a clock, a banner, or an electronic billboard showing company announcements, headlines, or stock prices. These landmarks help employees get oriented in a large space, in much the same way that signs do in airports, on the highway, and in grocery stores. Above individual workstations are wing-shaped canopies that further define the space and filter fluorescent light. The canopies also provide another reference point. "Think about being on a crowded beach," says Duffy. "How can you possibly find someone unless you know that you need to look for a blue umbrella? It's a visual cue. That's what the canopy does."

Another way to make people feel more comfortable at work is to make the office feel less like an office and more like home. So every Resolve workstation has a small flower vase attached to a pole. "It's a tiny symbol of the things that we enjoy," Birsel says. On top of some poles are porch lights, which create a residential ambience and conveniently communicate whether someone is "home." These small details are all designed to create familiarity; the mechanism for raising the table, for example, operates the same way that the brake on a bike does.

"We created things that are similar to what you might use day in and day out because we wanted to soften the divide between work and home," says Duffy. "You shouldn't be jarred into feeling one way at work and another way at home. What's going to be fun is watching people live in Resolve. They're going to say, 'I think I'll hang my bike from that railing up there.' "

What Knowledge Workers Don't Need

Inviting people to work in new ways means that they have to be willing to stop working in the old ways. One of the major challenges for Resolve was to design spaces that reflect how people actually work, rather than how they think they work. "If you look closely at what's happening in offices now, you see a new set of needs that the workers themselves can't articulate," says Long. "For years, knowledge work -- the kind of work that we're talking about -- was done horizontally. It's a tradition that dates back to monks sitting at desks, copying scripture. But that's not how work is done now. We don't work by looking down and writing. We work vertically, by looking up at a computer terminal."

Yet when Long asks workers what they need, the answer is the same -- more horizontal surface space. He insists that people need less of this kind of space than they might think. In his research, he constantly observed workers making piles that they rarely used. They invariably attached the most important reminders to their computer terminals using Post-it Notes. That's why Resolve is designed to encourage vertical work. Several inches above the desk is a long tray that looks like a transparent music stand. On the other side of the desk is a screen on which employees can pin or Velcro items (another innovation: material that's tackable, translucent, and Velcro-friendly) . There's also a vertical file tray, a vertical storage cabinet, and a whiteboard attached to a pole.