The influences of branding and information technology have had the greatest effect on recent developments of the office. The widespread use of the Internet, laptops and mobile phones has created a much more fluid situation. Work could become more mobile and move from the office to the café or the home. The cost savings of teleworking and outsourcings could not be ignored by companies facing new demands to remain competitive in the globalised markets of the 1990s.

The British Telecom office in Stockley Park, on the M25 near Heathrow airport, is an open plan business park building occupied as part of their ‘Workstyle 2000’ initiative. This branded process was created to smooth the transition from being a public utility to a privatised company competing in a global telecommunications market. British Telecom took the opportunity to change the working culture of their organisation, selling off properties in inner city areas and moving to the outskirts and regional hubs. At Stockley Park staff - mostly managers previously accustomed to cellular offices in West London - now travel to work by car and spend a maximum of three days a week in the office – the remainder spent with clients or working from home.

In the actual office environment, designed to enable ‘hot-desking’ and more team-based working, the unimaginative and regularized open plan has made it difficult for people to identify or feel at home and departmental groupings are unclear. Fast-track construction has made it difficult to consult with the future users, so while the result may be increased efficiency and profits for the company it actually illustrates only the most up-to date version of the Taylorist attitudes that have dominated the office throughout its history. The new territories of the motorway, airport and trading estate - or the ‘non-place’ - celebrated in the novels of J.G. Ballard are now the familiar everyday working experience for many office workers.

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