New-age office architecture: Tradition gives way to collaborative workspace

Rows of tables and desks are being swapped for 'Breakout' spaces with vibrant furniture

Popular culture has so often linked the office cubicle with joyless drudgery. Canadian author Douglas Coupland, in the 1991 novel Generation X, likened such workstations to “veal-fattening pens”, secluded shelters where cattle are prepared for slaughter. Dilbert, the protagonist of the comic strip about white-collar jobs, once determinedly noted: “They can make me work in a little box but they can’t crush my spirit.” And the chief character of the cult film Office Space, in a moment of daredevil rebellion, unscrewed and tipped over a cubicle wall that was blocking his view.

It may have taken some decades but the