Deep Work Concept: How Cal Newport's Writings Will Influence Office Design

Edited February 2020. In Cal Newport's 2016 bestseller, Deep Work, he writes:

"We...find ourselves in distracting open offices where inboxes cannot be neglected and meetings are incessant--a setting where colleagues would rather you respond quickly to their latest e-mail than produce the best possible results."

The importance of optimized productivity and the need for a specific type of isolation that fosters creativity and innovation are two topics Newport frequently visits in his other publications. In a quickly-growing "thought economy," one skill will become increasingly important: the ability to do deep work. Deep work concept is Newport's specific phrase for an activity our world's great thinkers have been doing for centuries: recessing for specific periods of time to deeply think, dream, innovate, manifest, and create.

"In an ideal world--one in which the true value of deep work is accepted and celebrated--we'd all have access to something like the Eudaimonia Machine...generally speaking, a work environment (and culture) designed to help us extract as much value as possible from our brains. Unfortunately, this vision is far from our current reality."

Right now, modern office design--particularly the open-office layout--goes against the principles of deep work, and the environment needed to foster it.

The Distracting Open Office: How do we reverse this?

We turn back to Newport's mention of the Eudaimonia Machine. In order to truly serve the offices of the future, we must recognize and create space for executives and entrepreneurs to accomplish deep work, because they will ultimately usher in the next generation of creative solutions to the world's most pressing issues.

The Deep Work Concept

What is the Eudaimonia Machine? Early on, in Deep Work, Newport talks about architect professor David Dewane's brilliant conceptual design called the Eudaimonia Machine. The layout, Dewane explained to Newport, is simple: a one-story rectangular building made up of five rooms. There are no hallways, you must pass through one room in order to get to the next. What would this look like if we applied Dewane's layout to a modern commercial office?