The Anthropology of Corporate Space: How Office Design Shapes Power, Identity, and Innovation

Office design is about so much more than meters and cubicles. It is a social endeavor with significant stakes—the geometry of a space, the placement of a chair, the thrum of a shared area all communicate something about who we are, who is valued, and what we need to do together. Space equates with value, with power, with expectation the instant you step inside.

Anthropologists have long studied the ways in which a community is organized—and where people live, conduct markets, and hold sacred sites. Offices today can be seen as miniature societies with sets of rules concerning space. When an organization alters office design, it is not simply changing office furniture; it is actually changing the play script concerning teamwork and relating.

Consider open office spaces. They were meant to democratize the working environment—to create a space without walls, with lots of conversation, plenty of access. But instead, what often happens is an amplification of existing levels of hierarchy. The top executives continue to create quiet zones for themselves or the luxury of working from home, and then the rest of the employees get left with the background noise and a surprising lack of privacy despite being in open space.

But on the other hand, purposefully designed collaboration zones—quiet rooms, rapid idea areas, lounges—can rebalance power by providing employees with real options about where and how they can work. Autonomy can be turned into cultural capital because the ability to control your space broadcasts a message about being trusted, respected, and valued.

It is a space you work in, and it too helps form your identity. A room full of brand slogans, posters, and color designations creates an identity of what you need to be for the organization. "The aesthetic script is taken up," says Goffman, "for what one is meant to wear, for example, for what one is meant to use on one's desk, for just how loudly one is meant to talk."

From an innovation standpoint, spatial anthropology illustrates how innovative thoughts rarely originate in “creativity” rooms. Rather, brainstorming sessions tend to be significantly less innovative than corridors, kitchens, and other liminal spaces where incidental conversations occur. Liminal spaces, so-called “threshold spaces,” foster innovation by being areas of transition.

Savvy businesses have these thresholds in mind when they design. They value flow over control, flexibility over rigidity, and cultural fit over aesthetic appeal. Even digital native workplaces think in terms of space makers, with interface design, meeting habits, and communication patterns creating virtual space conducive to connect.

There is always one thing about a business space that is most revealing, and it is the moment it shows signs of contradictions. It can be a business promoting teamwork with pods isolating employees instead. It can be an organization promoting innovativeness with strict space bookings. When space fails to reflect what is being communicated, the message itself fails.

Viewing office design with an ‘anthropological’ perspective means ‘governance’ in relation to space itself. This ‘is behavior shaping, relation forming, value communicating independent of language.’ When this space ‘is related’ to a corporation’s culture, employees ‘are’ empowered and ‘feel’ connected and committed to what is happening in ‘the’ organization. With business anthropology, the office is reframed from a straightforward workspace into a cultural system. Space is strategy, and design is a story about the organization.