Out of Office

Dewi Preece (Year: 4)

The global economy is slowing and people are producing less. Growth is falling. If growth falls too quickly, this results in collapse. If growth falls more gradually, this results in a transition to a new society. This is degrowth. Degrowth is in essence the equitable downscaling of society. Regardless of the rate at which degrowth continues, the outcomes are the same; mass under-employment and the death of the office as we understand it today. Out of Office constitutes a series of degrowth simulations culminating in a proposed alternative model for housing and its procurement. A model which takes as its starting point the material and immaterial values of the corporate office. The model proposes a material system of perpetual deconstruction and construction in which the office is the primary input source. Atomised both physically and conceptually, offices are reframed as a highly valuable banks of material for reuse and as generators of community and culture.