Got a smelly weirdo sitting next to you at work? Need a place to stick an intern? Well it looks like cubicle life as we know it is about to change. If some cutting-edge companies have their way, we may all soon be working from mobile workstations.
What those spaces will look like all depends on the designer. Here’s a look at the most notable designs:
• Michiel van der Kley’s Globus folds up into a globe and unfolds into a desk and a chair.
• The ScooterDesk by Utilia may look uncomfortable, but its barstool design with wheels makes it highly portable.
• The Surf Chair Workstation by Kenneth Lylover brings your computer, and your bed, into the workplace. With a built in LCD display, a strategically placed spot for the keyboard and mouse, and a padded lounge chair, a nap at your desk might not be so far fetched.
And our favorite: Robert Preger has created a “living laboratory” at Carnegie Mellon to develop an ideal green workplace.
Employees can move around partitions and work areas as they like. A biodiesel-fueled generator engine powers Preger’s design, providing enough energy to heat and cool the building. To save energy, sensors are used to turn off lights when people aren’t around.
For those of you looking to lose weight, there’s also the treadmill desk, created by the Mayo Clinic’s Dr. James Levine. According to research, you can lose up to 57 pounds in one year. That’s a lot of weight—though nothing compared to what people shed on the Biggest Loser.
Credit: flickr/ Dave Austria
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Great article. I particularly enjoyed the treadmill desk. I would love to use that (it’s the “36 laminate finishes” that clinched it for me). But $4,000 is too steep for me!
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:15 pm
[...] Original post by Discoblog | Discover Magazine [...]
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:47 am
I agree the $4000 is too steep for me too. I saw another article though on a product called TrekDesk at http://www.trekdesk.com, this one I found out will probably cost just $399. Have not seen a better treadmill desk out there, have you?
October 25th, 2008 at 12:28 am
You can build your own treadmill desk very expensively. Since I got my treadmill for free from a guy at church, I have a total of $25 in my setup.
Please join our community of treadmill desk users at http://officewalkers.ning.com.
October 29th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Dumbest office technologies since the exercise work station: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2007/05/17/what-wont-keep-people-slim-the-execucisor/.
November 5th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Put my workstation outside please. Or better yet, at the pub down the street.