Changing workplaces

Abstract

The entrance to the Microsoft building in Amsterdam, a huge reflective-glass box next to Schiphol Airport, has the feel of an ultra-modern hotel lobby. People sit and stand around, chatting or waiting for appointments, bags and suitcases on the floor and laptops open on tables. Low sofas and coffee beckon from the hospitality corner.

The office should be a meeting place, not a working place. We can work anywhere, so it is social cohesion that becomes the important factor in physical premises.

Theo Rinsema, general manager, Microsoft Netherlands