The coronavirus pandemic has brought unprecedented attention to the space and place of the office. However, despite recent editorials and articles regarding potential futures of office spaces, little has been written regarding how and why office spaces have evolved as they have. Less still can be found on how office spaces might be improved not just for productivity, but also for enjoyability and humanity.

Taking up the conference title ‘Dreaming of a another place’, this paper investigates the dream of, and path toward, a better, more humane, and more dignified office.

Driven by Harry Braverman’s assertions regarding the centrality of control over the labor process to the continued success of capitalism (Labor and Monopoly Capital, 1974), this paper situates the office as a place and space defined by the necessities of global capital. Within this framework the office serves a fundamental role in facilitating the extraction of labor – the office is a place which is designed not just to enable workers to work faster, but also to work in particular ways. This paper argues the root cause of problematic, uncomfortable, and inhumane office spaces is found not within specific architectural elements, but rather within the foundations of the capitalist labor process itself. The solutions to these problems, the path to a better office, must then involve a broader struggle against capitalism.

This paper suggests a regime of vertically integrated unionization of those involved in the creation and use of office spaces (designers, architects, builders and office occupants) as a way to insert the needs and wants of all workers in a process previously held by capital. By uniting the voices, creativity and interests of all working people involved in the creation of office spaces, perpetual issues such as lack of personal privacy, minimal daylight, limited natural air and cramped, noisy conditions can be addressed at their source, rather than tackled piecemeal. In addressing the root cause of suboptimal office spaces – capitalism – though the union of architects, designers, builders and office occupants, this paper argues the dream of a better office, shaped around the needs and desires of all workers might be realized.