BRIEF 1 // Director’s Office // Lloyd Lee

Our first brief focusses on what a Director’s office should be like, practically and conceptually

Everyone has their own personal image of what a “Director” embodies. The Director can be a fierce authoritarian figure or one that inspires leadership and vision in a hierarchy. Either way, Directors often come with the tendency to be unapproachable. This factor is particularly exaggerated in their office. Usually configured with a desk at the back with bookshelves on either side, the procession one has to undertake from the threshold to the desk can be uneasy. There is a sense of intimidation in the air.

With this brief, I call for different entries that might rethink theorganisation of the Director’s office. Do you want to exaggerate such intimidation, or do you wish to introduce more intimacy? Can the office be transformed into something else? Can the generous height of 4m benefit the typology?

One also has to consider the experiential aspect as well as the functional. As the head of an institution, a Director governs representative and organisational functions and is encountered with countless day-to-day tasks. He/she has to be able to hold multiple meetings, write documents, read and think. What does a space dedicated to leadership have the potential to be?

Lloyd Lee is a Diploma student at the Architectural Association and co-founder of Volume 64