Spaces Designed for Team Work

As an architect, I am very interested in the subject of environments designed
or adapted to facilitate team work. While I confront the team needs of my
clients, I am also attempting to "program" the physical needs of my own
organization to improve our own team capabilities. I would therefore greatly
appreciate the experiences of those who feel their work environments are
uniquely suited to the needs of teams. I would also appreciate any other
information you may offer on this subject, including readings, references,
rumors or other sources of ideas and experiences you may be familiar with.

I am especially interested in experience or other evidence suggesting that
multi-disciplinary teams perform better when their members are located in
close proximity to each other. In my area, for example, firms have
experimented with movable furniture and adaptable workstations to allow
clustering of team members. These tests seem to end early for a number of
reasons including the impracticality of managing frequent moves, the "costs"
of maintaining flexibile and adaptable space, the need to obtain support from
others in the same discipline, the desire to have project experience more
obvious to other members of the same discipline, and departmental turf
politics.

Do teams, if organized and led appropriately, transcend the characteristics
of space and physical organization and achieve high performance anyway? Or,
do teams which are co-located seem to achieve better performance results?

I will be happy to digest the responses I get and make them available to
others.
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