It's a question as old as the cubicle-era work era itself, one that lays at heart of People in Glass Houses: Are we giving our workers an ideal environment? Are all our office spaces optimized for maximum worker output?If monuments to glass, there's good chance that lacking any central air-cooling system these work places will in short time become greenhouses. And when it's fucking hot, workers are less likely to, you know, work.Climate control is, of course, something taken largely for granted in today's work milieu. In 2013, we've got other things to worry about--shit like standing desks and open-concept (ugh) floor plans. That simply wasn't the case in 1967. With more and more "glass-palace office blocs" jutting upward, the short film's narrator intones, the problem of an overheated work force became more and more pressing as post-WWII capitalism really started hitting something like a stride.People in Glass Houses, not to be confused with later architecture docs of the same name, features a handful of case studies into such cooling efforts, or lack thereof, throughout the UK. There's a certain charm to it, with lots of nasal-y, grey-suited architects in horn-rimmed specs dropping dry knowledge, and plenty of stock footage of good 'lil worker bees buzzing off to the hive.Check it out, chill out, whatever. Then get to work, kid.@thebanderson
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