The evolution of office desks

The office desk is one of the office furniture that’s overlooked. It’s is only noticed for its utilitarian nature and users wouldn’t really give it much thought. Have you ever wondered who invented the desk or at least where the idea came from and how it was developed?

The office desk has come a long way with notable evolution on makes and design all throughout the decades it has been in existence. In the beginning, the office desk was merely created or made for the sole use of creating documents. It all stared back in the 17th century wherein, the reason previously stated did not require its size to bee too large or wide and with different compartments for storage. All it needed was enough room for writing and the user’s ink bottles and other tools needed to transcribe words onto paper.

During that time, these desks were made as if it were sculpture that way the end product were like pieces of art. Each desk was unique since it was hand-made by a master wood worker and a cabinet maker for clients who were financially capable and were part of a circle in society that merits a piece of craftmanship.

During the 18th century, the use of these office desks or office tables grew and they were made for more than just writing documents. Makers then learned that such office furniture can actually cater to clients who need a surface wherein they will draw up plans for buildings, infrastructure and other design projects. With this new knowledge on how such a surface can be useful, the creation of adjustable drawing or drafting tables took place.

The need for the office furniture to maximize the use of the space increased, thus, allowing desk makers to venture into optimising space, coupling it with storage capacity and other space saving features.

When the 19th century rooled around, the office desk’s use and purpose stretched to accommodate durability during the industrial revolution. With the birth of steam engines, it allowed that these office desks be manufactured in a factory (mass produced) and not just hand-crafted. And with the development of the ability to create desks in large quantity, the need for variety in desk options also increased. Office desks becoming mainstrean equates to satisfying the need of expanding businesses since they now employ an increasing number of workers that will need desks to get their work done. It also seeks to satisfy the need for variety in desk design and use such as alloting space for office equipment, addressing the organisation and filing of documents and adding the option for secured storage. These things brought about the creation of the locking roll top desk. Eventually, addressing the need for those documents was creating a specific office furniture for it, filing cabinets.

Though some of the changes came at a later time, like it was not until the late 1980’s that desks had to go through another major transformation, to be able to deal with computer revolution. Size of office desks became larger and wider to accommodate the computer keyboard and monitor, and then they needed more room for a mouse, a printer and other peripherals that may have been required to get the day’s projects finished during this modernizing age.

Nowadays, the office desk is still going through the process of transformation. It’s evolving to bigger and better that most users have now opted to go for the U-shaped desk to be able to house everything that’s necessary. However, as the computer era continues to shrink the devices and office equipment that are used in business, we may yet resort back to using smaller desks as smaller CPU’s and flat screen monitors have been introduced.

Posted on: Desking

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The evolution of office desks

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