How We Keep Making Offices Worse

Even after numerous redesigns, why do modern offices feel so distracting? From cubicles to open offices, this video breaks down the hidden history and psychology behind workplace design — and why every “solution” seems to make things worse. We start in the 1960s, when corporate offices looked more like factory floors than creative spaces. Then we follow the rise (and fall) of the cubicle — a system originally designed to give workers more freedom and flexibility, but ultimately transformed into something far more restrictive. From there, we explore the open office revolution pushed by Silicon Valley, where walls disappeared in the name of collaboration… only for productivity and real interaction to collapse. So what went wrong?