Action Office, or, Another Kind of ‘Architecture Without Architects’

When Robert Propst set out to transform the white-collar office, he began with a research protocol: observe, notate, quantify, represent. This process, based equally on the production of data and the use of representation to turn that data into information, led to Action Office, a system that aimed...

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Main Author: Phillip Denny
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: TU Delft OPEN Publishing 2019-12-01
Series:Footprint
Online Access:https://ojs-libaccp.tudelft.nl/index.php/footprint/article/view/3413
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author Phillip Denny
author_facet Phillip Denny
author_sort Phillip Denny
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description When Robert Propst set out to transform the white-collar office, he began with a research protocol: observe, notate, quantify, represent. This process, based equally on the production of data and the use of representation to turn that data into information, led to Action Office, a system that aimed to transform every action and surface of the office environment into a data-rich cybernetic loop. For Propst, the key to turning the office into a space that produced information, rather than merely managed it, was display; as he wrote, ‘Action Office 2 provides no place for paper to hide or die – all paper material is displayed. You can see it, it is all signalled or marked and it will feed back a strong purge signal when it becomes overabundant.’ Propst’s Action Office system mobilised display to produce an information environment that cuts out noisy signals to frame clear communication.
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spelling doaj-art-55fc03dd8adb4e5cba2a98a6a1c354762025-08-20T02:04:58ZengTU Delft OPEN PublishingFootprint1875-15041875-14902019-12-0113210.7480/footprint.13.2.3413Action Office, or, Another Kind of ‘Architecture Without Architects’Phillip Denny0Harvard UniversityWhen Robert Propst set out to transform the white-collar office, he began with a research protocol: observe, notate, quantify, represent. This process, based equally on the production of data and the use of representation to turn that data into information, led to Action Office, a system that aimed to transform every action and surface of the office environment into a data-rich cybernetic loop. For Propst, the key to turning the office into a space that produced information, rather than merely managed it, was display; as he wrote, ‘Action Office 2 provides no place for paper to hide or die – all paper material is displayed. You can see it, it is all signalled or marked and it will feed back a strong purge signal when it becomes overabundant.’ Propst’s Action Office system mobilised display to produce an information environment that cuts out noisy signals to frame clear communication.https://ojs-libaccp.tudelft.nl/index.php/footprint/article/view/3413
spellingShingle Phillip Denny
Action Office, or, Another Kind of ‘Architecture Without Architects’
Footprint
title Action Office, or, Another Kind of ‘Architecture Without Architects’
title_full Action Office, or, Another Kind of ‘Architecture Without Architects’
title_fullStr Action Office, or, Another Kind of ‘Architecture Without Architects’
title_full_unstemmed Action Office, or, Another Kind of ‘Architecture Without Architects’
title_short Action Office, or, Another Kind of ‘Architecture Without Architects’
title_sort action office or another kind of architecture without architects
url https://ojs-libaccp.tudelft.nl/index.php/footprint/article/view/3413
work_keys_str_mv AT phillipdenny actionofficeoranotherkindofarchitecturewithoutarchitects