Office Affair

Image by Friederike Von Rauch

By Noam Dvir January 7, 2011

Crossposted from Haaretz

How can a lone worker express his individuality in a corporate firm employing hundreds of people? Will a colorful coffee cup, some family photos or a distinctive fashion sense suffice to attracts the attention of colleagues and the secretaries?

Image by Friederike Von Rauch

At the renovated Neopharm building in Petah Tikva, architects Yael Benaroya and Yoram Shilo have given an original means of expression to employees. They have installed a sophisticated facade of moving louvers on the building and have given each employee the possibility of controlling the degree to which the window slats open and the amount of their exposure inside the office.

Seen from the street, the building is a mosaic of opened and half-closed windows — each of them representing the personal climatic preferences of an individual employee. The moving and slanting of the louvers is accomplished through a computer program installed in the workers’ computers and mobile phones.

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