OFFICE buildings offer problems akin to those of departmental stores, but
with certain important differences dictated by differences of purpose. It
is necessary to state this obvious fact because there cannot really be any
satisfactory interchange of use from one to the other in a building of any size as has
sometimes been done in the past.

Whereas in the departmental store there is the principle of one large room on
each floor, in the office building each floor is divided into comparatively small com-
partments. Where in the former, light would penetrate some distance from large
windows, with perhaps only the rear portions of the floor requiring artificial light,
in the office block all the small compartments require their source of light. Thus if
the block has a fairly large area and is between other buildings in a street, the light
well is essential. That this light well has so often not been adequate for its purpose
means that the rooms on the lower floors facing on to the well must depend mainly
on artificial light.

Often too, a wide expanse of floor between two outer walls has been divided into
four rows of offices, meaning that the inner rooms depend on artificial light. Attempts
have often been made to overcome this difficulty by having glass partitions either
transparent or translucent between the rooms, but sufficient light rarely penetrates
from the windows through the partitions (often double, to allow for a corridor
between) to the inner rooms. This arrangement also has other disadvantages. It has
poor sound insulation, while even with translucent glass, the possibility of some
degree of privacy, which is often desirable in an office, is greatly diminished. Examples
of four rows of rooms with the two inner rows depending partially or wholly on
artificial light in the daytime, common enough in every city in Europe, can only be
regarded as bad design, in which the building is not well suited for the purpose it
has to serve.

The contention with regard to departmental stores must be repeated in the case
of offices--that workers should not be condemned to work always in artificial light,
and that buildings should be designed so as to provide adequate daylight for all the
offices.

The designing of an office block is conditioned very largely by the site, its size,
and whether the specific purpose is known, that is, whether it is designed to accom-
modate a particular company or public body, or whether it is built as office premises
to be let in sections to various tenants. It is far more satisfactory to design an office
block where the specific purpose is known, because the steel or concrete frame can
be designed in relation to the desired compartments, and the building can be designed

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