Kill the cubicles!!!

Posted by Jim Stroud

October 23, 2005

What would happen if you allowed the workers to design their own workspaces? Would you get more comfortable motivated workers who refuse to go home? Could be… Just ask the guys at Pixar who flat out refused to allow cubicles to confine their creative imaginaries. Ain’t it Cool News toured the Pixar facilities and (among other things) posted pictures of their workspaces. Below is a clip from an AICN blogpost. Ahhh… feel the envy.

Instead of cubicles, each of the animators has a customized space. There was one guy who had this groovy corner office that was open on two sides, and he had no chair at all. He had the entire office set up so that he could work standing, like so:

That was a pretty extreme example of what someone could do with their space. A lot of the animators decided early on that they didn’t want cubicles, so instead, Pixar found these groovy little cottages that they bought for them. Walking through the animation department is like walking through a neighborhood for dwarves. Lots of little houses laid out along “streets,” each one with an address on the door.