What passes for work these days

Some months ago, We here at WuW transitioned from traditional commercial design work to, shall we say, a more time-eccentric, evidence-based direct interaction sort of endeavor.

 That's an extremely obfuscating way to say -- Retired.
Retirement is its own reward but it comes with some costs. Daily interactions with extremely talented colleagues, for instance, are no more.  A steady supply of tasks, the measure of Progress, Success - those are handed off to capable young practitioners eager and ready to make their marks.

 Now there is time for coffee, time for contemplation of what, exactly, constitutes Work. 
Are we still working? 

With more time each day to choose exactly what one wants to do, the ability to slow down and Look at surroundings becomes important. The ability to See life as it actually is.

This has led quite naturally to the hand-eye coordination exercise of sketching.  It's a great way to slow down, to see the texture and detail of the city, to observe, free of commercial pressure to get it Right, do it Well.

We find that we're seeing parts of our world in new ways, picking up images and viewpoints that weren't readily available in the workaday world.

So far, we like what we're seeing.

Not Afraid to Use It

When we started WuW a few years back, we envisioned an interactive conversation. Creative folks would expound on how their work spaces came to be, what they liked best or least, and why it works well for them. While we had some initial success with this format, it gradually morphed into something else, a collection of unusual jobs and work spaces.

Leave it to the New York Times to deliver a short, neat feature that does exactly what we longed for way back when. A profile of Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator  of architecture and design for  MOMA, expounds upon the features of her workspace (and her working style) in a way that reaffirms what we love about this format. Here are a few gems from from Ms. Antonelli:

"It is better to have privacy, but if I were to chose between a cubicle and completely open space, I would choose the open space. The illusion of privacy is worse than no privacy."

"Design is to be used. I would never have it just to contemplate it. That would be an aberration."

"What is important is that whatever kind of office people work in, they have the chance to customize their space. People must make their nest."

To copy much more might be plagiarism. You should go HERE to see the original story. We'd like to think we had an original idea, though.