THE CUTTING EDGE: COMPUTING / TECHNOLOGY / INNOVATION : Longer Leash : Soon There'll Be No Escaping the Office

By KAREN KAPLAN

Oct. 4, 1995 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Face it. The technology that promised to save time and create more freedom has instead resulted in longer leashes to the office. Those in denial need look no further than the Alternative Office Expo at the Pacific Design Center, where architects and interior designers proved that it is indeed possible to work any time, anywhere.

The theme of the expo, which ended Saturday, was “Where you sit is where you work.” The depressing consensus: The Office of the Future can be anywhere.

That includes romantic dinners at the Water Grill restaurant, the exercise bicycle at the gym--even the shower, according to one team of interior designers, architects and graphic artists assembled by the Leo A. Daly Co. of Los Angeles. Their entry, titled “Zoning In,” featured a portable office “tool belt” that comfortably holds a laptop computer and cellular phone--two staples of wireless telecommunications.

“You create your office space and take it with you,” explained Brian Keenan, a graphic designer on the Zoning In team. “I don’t know what the implications are for one’s personal life.”

“The whole bathroom thing scares me a lot,” admitted Gemma Lawson, another graphic designer who worked on the project.

To complement the dozens of alternative office environments, the expo featured half a dozen symposiums with titles like “Never Too Far Away: Staying Connected.” Pacific Design Center President Andrew I. Wolf said that session addressed the issue of “when to turn it all off.”

Somewhat defensively, Wolf said technology is responsible for the expanding definition of the “workplace”--architects and interior designers are just trying to soften the blow.

“If the [24-hour workday] is going to be with us, we might as well make it as comfortable as possible,” he said.

Speaking of comfort, a pair of 27-year-olds from Finland has designed something called a Netsurfer, an alternative to the traditional desk and chair that actually encourages workers to slouch in front of their computers.

“This is built around the computer and the person,” said creator Ilkka Terho, managing director of Valvomo Ltd. of Helsinki. “Many people spend 10 to 15 hours on a computer, and we thought this divan was a better solution” than the traditional desk and chair.

The $8,110 Netsurfer features a curved seat back covered with the same leather used in Volvo luxury cars. Legs straddle the computer’s central processing unit, with customized foot rests for added comfort. Hands and keyboard rest neatly on an armrest that lifts up to allow users to get in and out of the contraption. Once nestled in, the user finds himself face to face with the computer monitor.

Terho’s partner, Teppo Asikainen, said a unit like the Netsurfer blurs the already fuzzy line between work and entertainment. (After all, who among us has not made a clandestine visit to the “X-Files” home page between legitimate work assignments?) Either way, Asikainen says, “you should be relaxed.”

Design Finland, a Netsurfer distributor based in the Pacific Design Center, has about 200 orders pending for the alternative work space, said Marja Uskali, the company’s vice president.

Rail commuters who relish reading their morning paper on the train to work (hey, it does happen on the East Coast) will soon kiss that luxury good-by, according to the Los Angeles firm of Rothenberg Sawasy Architects. Instead, they will be holed up in X-Ports, four-by-six-foot rail car cubicles complete with hook-ups for laptop computers and communication outlets for teleconferencing.

Virtuosity, a Marina Del Rey telecommunications concern, and the interior design firm of Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum teamed up for a five-minute skit to illustrate how an entertainment company’s office could work in 2010. The all-female executive team and sleek furniture aside, the centerpiece of the skit was Wildfire, a voice-activated phone system that behaves like a personal digital assistant.

Wildfire screens calls and even calls the busy exec to remind her to send flowers to her husband. Clients calling into a Wildfire-equipped business can track people down anywhere by simply calling a local number--Wildfire will forward the call. The only way to escape the phone system is by refusing to give it a forwarding number.

“This is good if you’re a small office and you can’t afford an assistant,” said Joshua Touber, president of Virtuosity, which is bringing Wildfire service to Southern California. “Wildfire can give the illusion that there’s an office around you 24 hours a day.”

Great.

The father-and-son team of Steven De Christopher Sr. and Jr. provided some relief by offering a way to enjoy the inevitable time spent in the office.

What looks like a gilded mirror hanging behind an ornate desk is actually a two-way mirror, through which can be seen a giant-screen television complete with stereo sound (the speakers are hidden in twin Oriental vases). Using a remote control, workers can channel surf, or pop a tape into the VCR.

In deference to the true purpose of an office, the television screen can be hooked up to a personal computer to create a monitor extraordinaire. But that also means that computer golf game can be played with larger-than-life gusto.

Said the younger De Christopher: “You spend most of your time in your office, so you might as well add some luxuries.”