Bookforum talks with Nikil Saval
Most office workers in the United States still work in cubicles. But those drab, square workstations weren’t always the symbol of drudgery they have become. Nikil Saval, the author of Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace and an editor at n+1, speaks to Dissent's Nick Serpe about how design became central to the way workers and managers thought about problems at the office.
Despite recurrent media coverage of innovations in office design in the tech sector, the majority of office workers in the United States still work in cubicles. But those drab, square workstations weren’t always the symbol of drudgery they have become. Robert Propst, the designer of the precursor to the cubicle, conducted interviews with white-collar workers and various experts before creating his model, and he had high expectations that these movable units would satisfy the needs of both employees and employers. In Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace, n+1 editor Nikil Saval describes how