The Office and The Leaf

An ode to fluidity

The Office

This is the story of an office. Full of humans, chairs, desks and computers.

An office with corridors, square meeting rooms, straight lines, angles, ceiling lights, transparent windows people avoid to look through.

This is the story of an office which is supposed to be a place of creation, ideation, services, innovation, solution design, of sharing.

An office like a house of humans, where things emerge.

But lately, the humans are reluctant to get inside it.

on cold days, after weeks of rain and grey skies, despite the music of an energetic human, the office has lost its splendor and appeal, its charm and soul.

Humans officially say they go there for other humans, not for the place itself. Not for the meeting rooms, not for the coffee area, nor do they go there for inspiration, energies or the 1to1 catch ups.

Most days, humans push the door and go straight to where they feel they belong: their own desk, where they brought some of them from home.

They sit and spend long hours in front of square computers, on their square desks.

The only things with some roundness are their pen, their seat and maybe a portable speaker brought from home.

They leave behind the trace of work in progress — a jagged rhythm of energy, a half-drunk cup of cold coffee, an open notebook covered in scribbles, a living desire, or one slowly fading.

They want to be part of the whole, but where is it in those corridors, those desks and closed doors, those rooms where the future gets discussed without being communicated to them clearly?

When they stand, it is to walk in straight corridors, to go to a scare meeting room where they might sit at an oval table, although most of the time they are square too. And they stare at a rectangular screen on which a landscape presentation is shared.

This is the story of an office which is straight lines and angles.

An office for machines, for robots, for lifeless things.

Everything there is straight. Clean is straight. Order and growth are linear.

And through time, the office's chiefs are wondering why, despite the freshly painted walls and new colourful mugs, why do their humans don't feel attracted to it.

The Leaf

This is the story of a leaf.

Of a disarming simplicity and beauty.

One of nature's most efficient and beautiful creations.

A leaf, all in curves and parallel lines, different thicknesses, with a subtle colour palette, full of veines and transparency.

Its design is of a striking

This seemingly simple design proves astonishingly effective — minimal, high-performing, decentralized, self-sufficient, and perfectly attuned to its environment.

This tiny thing accomplishes so much. It captures light. It transforms the gases it absorbs into other gases. It turns light into energy. And through everything it does, it does not pollute. Nothing. No waste.

It acts as an autonomous producer within a whole: its tree.

Everything happens naturally, fluidly. It is part of a world it actively contributes to, with a multiple, creative function. It takes in what surrounds it, transforms it into exactly what its whole needs, and gives it back.

What if?

What if the office that did not appeal to humans anymore, reorganised itself like a leaf?

What if instead of straight lines and square things, we chose curves and rounded objects?

What would it impact?

Would ideas come quicker, more fluidly?

Would humans flow in the environment?

Would innovation and creativity grow? Would a fun, playful, inspiring, unexpected environment influence all of this?

What if the office became a path?

A path on which you could collect energy from other humans?

What of the path changed into a highway of ideas and emotions?

What if....

In a world that has been through a lot and knows creativity, happiness and innovation rise when humans get together, designing and thinking your office like a leaf instead of a Tetris block might make a difference.

For your creativity, your efficiency, your innovation, your bottom line, but most of all, for the level of happiness and fulfillment experienced by the humans who came to invest and live in it.