In this brief paper, we present a bird’s eye view of how offices came to be what they are, and the transformation that they are undergoing. The important part in this mapping process is interpreting ecosystems that create workplaces, and then, alter its form in tune with the needs of time. With considerable focus on emergent trends like  Co-working, it is evident that the journey of workplace remains a dynamic one. The origin of offices, as we have come to understand the word, is arguably rooted in the Industrial Revolution. Machines brought together numerous people to work in a common premise. A pioneer was the Larkin Administration Building in Buffalo in 1906 designed by the celebrated architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It established new benchmarks in design such as spacious, undivided floors with rows of identical workstations and innovations like air conditioning, built-in furniture, hung-walls and ventilation innovations. The concept caught on rapidly and by the twenties it was the preferred design for corporates across the world. 

The advent of sixties brought the next wave of change when offices across the world started looking beyond functionality. The office of this decade was a little less staid than those before it. Offices were reflective of the societal change of this time, increasingly becoming an extension of the brand. The path in India was somewhat different though. The country was still finding its feet as a newly independent nation. The country’s economy, steered by public sector, was focused on large infrastructure and basic industrial set-ups, and hence, the workplaces, though dense, were basic and pragmatic. Things began to change in the nineties when India opened the doors of its economy to the world.