Disappearing Desks - The perfect work / life balance

Amsterdam-based design studio Heldergroen has introduced ‘vanishing desks’ into its office in an effort to encourage employees to maintain a happy work-life balance.

Built by Zecc Architects, the large communal workstations are made from recycled telegraph poles and serve as standard office furniture during the day. However, when the clock strikes 6pm the desks are lifted into the ceiling using a key-operated lifting mechanism and steel ceiling cables, forcing employees to step away from their work.

The cleared office space is then available to be used for other activities, such as networking events, yoga classes or even dance parties! At nights and weekends the space can be also be hired out to others. The rest of the Heldergroen office was designed to be as sustainable as possible, with furniture made from materials scavenged in the neighbourhood.

We think the ethos behind the work-life balance is a hot topic, we believe the culture of working overly long hours has a questioning effect that productivity drops off when employees work too late. We would definitely use our office to hold parties if our desks disappeared.. Poor cleaners!  

Is social media helping us adapt to open plan offices?

It’s no coincidence that these days workplace design mirrors social media. In a fast-paced high-tech world where community seems to be more valued than privacy, the office partitions have come down in the name of collaboration and quick exchange. When we share our daily activities with colleagues through Facebook why would we mind sharing an open plan office with them? We are becoming more accepting of others’ lives and sharing our own with them.

Offices are being designed to offer collaborative work stations with open spaces to create “collision zones” for employees, where conversations get started and ideas get hatched like a social gathering that developed through a status update or a group message. Roll based work areas have become obsolesce as companies envision cross-departmental, even cross-industry alliances. Why have a meeting around a gigantic table when you and a few co-workers can set up shop in a more social environment mirroring our ever developing virtual world.