Architectural consulting in the knowledge economy: DEGW and the ORBIT Report

Abstract

In 1983, the workplace strategy and architecture practice, DEGW, published a highly influential study into the impact of information technology on the future of office buildings and the workplace, titled 'Office Research: Buildings and Information Technology' (ORBIT). Representing the first intensive research study into the organisational, technical and architectural demands of office work in Britain, the report concluded that the information age was rendering companies increasingly complex in their organisational and technological requirements, and ultimately more dependent on buildings. Although ostensibly a study about technological change, this paper argues that ORBIT should be viewed as a critical document in the formulation of the relationship between architects, suppliers, users and the state in the closing decades of the twentieth century. Sponsored by industry giants from real estate firms, construction and office supply companies, and government regulators, ORBIT brought together industries that were previously uneasy partners in postwar Britain but were being realigned under the Thatcher government's push for service sector innovation to revive the deindustrialised economy. Examined as both a product and instrument of neoliberal economic policy, the paper argues that the authors, sponsors and subjects of the research were linked by the demands of productivity, competition and performance both in and of the workplace. Within this analysis, DEGW's development of 'architectural consultancy', as a service that is distinct from architectural design, is interpreted as mode of repositioning the architect within the knowledge economy.

“Visually Stunning” while Financially Safe: Neoliberalism and Financialization at Canary Wharf

“…Recently, other scholars are focused on the changing structure of large firms in this era of financialization, particularly Aaron Cayer's research on DMJM and AECOM, Amy Thomas's research on DEGW, Ann Lui's research on SOM, Jay Wickersham on the changes to the A.I.A. professional code of ethics in the 1970s, and Arindam Dutta's work on Ove Arup, and these stories center on the professional history of architectural practice (McLeod, 1989;Martin, 2010;Lui, 2015;Cayer, 2018;Thomas, 2019). Changes in architectural practice are intertwined with their regulation by government, and perhaps more broadly by the context of their political moment.…”

“…Amy Thomas studied how the British firm DEGW brought together a wide range of architecture, real estate, and construction industry experts to produce a report that launched a type of 'architectural consultancy' that repositioned architects in an information age. 4 The report represents a shift in architectural practice that was "both a product and an instrument of neoliberal economic policy" as a government push for private sector innovation created realignments in industry (Thomas, 2019(Thomas, : 1020. Policies that stressed deregulation and encouraged private sector innovation, paired with changing legislation of professions, fed a host of changes in architectural practices.…”