The Office of Good Intentions with Florian Idenburg and Iwan Baan

In their new book, The Office of Good Intentions, architects Florian Idenburg and LeeAnn Suen and photographer Iwan Baan take a trip through the American office from the 1970s to the present - and into the future. Join us this evening as we explore their findings. Florian Idenburg and Iwan Baan will be present at Het Nieuwe Instituut, co-author LeeAnn Suen will join via Zoom. With contributions by Charlie Koolhaas and Nanne de Ru, the event will be moderated by Nick Axel.

The Office of Good Intentions: Human(s) Work

In their intriguing new book, architects Florian Idenburg and LeeAnn Suen explore the relationships between space, work and people, and investigate the intentions that have driven the development of office design for working humans. Topics include the return of the work club, the rise of the corporate festival, the way of the charismatic guru, the shattering of the time clock, and the design of playgrounds for work.

Photographic essays by Iwan Baan provide a visual report on a range of canonical office projects, such as Marcel Breuer’s IBM campus in Florida and the Ford Foundation’s urban garden in Manhattan.

As well as being a resource for architects, this book speaksl to anyone who has ever worked in an office. With curiosity and scepticism, it looks at the spaces and solutions we have designed for human work, tracing the transformation from work to occupation, from punch cards to “playbor,” from today’s lived experience to tomorrow’s unpredictable, imagined futures.

There's an opportunity to buy your own copy of The Office of Good Intentions: Human(s) Work during the event from NAi Booksellers, which is located on the ground floor of Het Nieuwe Instituut.