Minimalism is ‘a movement in sculpture and painting that arose in the 1950s, characterized by the use of simple massive forms’. In the second half of the 2010s minimalism became a trendy lifestyle, and with it minimalist concepts became incorporated into the workplace. The style based on simplicity and utilitarianism to avoid disturbances, impacted the working spaces by encouraging people to maximize efficiency, for minimalists the math is simple ‘unnecessary objects = unnecessary distractions’. However, the trend’s impact is up for discussion since it is dying out.
There is enough evidence to demonstrate the positive impact of minimalism on productivity. According to the Neuroscientist Sabine Kastner from the University of Princeton ‘distractions in our visual environment can impede our brains’ ability to function”, a cluttered desk translates to a ‘cluttered mind. As reported by researchers at UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives and Families, stress is directly stimulated by the environment, meaning saturated spaces are more likely to be stress-inducing. Moreover, according to a study carried out at the University of Connecticut, the act of cleaning can potentially generate a sense of accomplishment, which is beneficial for the mind. The positive attributes associated with incorporating minimalist design into the work environment are therefore irrefutable.
Minimalism Misfit
It is important to note that not everyone’s brain works the same, hence minimalist design impacts people differently, for instance, some may benefit from colour in order to process information. Every student has tried using different highlighters or pens to segment and organize their notes. This is an excellent example of a situation in which someone would require multiple objects that could potentially be reduced to only one, but the product of having a variety of this object is more beneficial for productivity. Thus, the minimalist argument that ‘less is more’ isn’t true for every scenario.
For some people absence leads to distraction, workers who perform routine tasks are likely to resort to background music, radio, or even TV shows and movies. If you walk into any architecture faculty you will encounter architecture students building models with their headphones on while cutting foam boards, or chatting while repetitively pressing commands in AutoCAD. Some tasks are so monotonous that they require a constant outward stimulus to keep people focused, if not the mind is likely to venture on its own to find distractions and stimulation. Proving that minimalist design principles can’t be applied generally to every work environment.
Minimalist Misery
The art form has been present for decades, but it peaked in the second half of the 2010s after the release on Netflix of ‘Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things’. To understand the trend that it produced, first, it’s necessary to address the context. After the 2008 crisis, society shifted, and consumer behaviour changed, everyone had learned the hard way that things could rapidly shift for the worse. Hence, people were more likely to save money than to consume. This new lifestyle trend arrived at the perfect timing, people were already consuming less, and now their behaviour was not only validated but encouraged, to the extent that it became a status symbol, people genuinely bragged about being able to live with less, about being above the social-gravitas of consumer behaviour and reaching a moral high ground only achievable for those with the strongest will. However, the style that threatened the social construct of ownership and property, became a moral standard based on personal guilt. The minimalist design movement that was meant to declutter people’s minds, to make room for productivity, turned into a constant battle for self-improvement that generated self-destructive behaviour.
The hypocrisy of the minimalists is undeniable. Objects that people owned were thrown away, and substituted by a ‘cleaner’ version to fit the aesthetic, defeating the original purpose of avoiding consumption. Also, a lot of people don’t have the privilege to presume that they don’t need some of the things they own, and they can’t take for granted that they will have the money in the future to buy them, meaning they can’t afford to throw them away. The minimalist design was for the upper-middle class, those who had the luxury to live with less. Furthermore, minimalism has been classified as a form of whitewashing. In minimalism, there is no room for culture, tradition, and heritage. Cultural design revolves around decoration, this clashes with the mindset of purely utilitarian design, decorative elements can’t coexist with minimalism. This causes cultural erasure and alienates people from participating.
However, It must be recognized that minimalism has potential benefits, a reduction in consumption is positive for the environment, and it can’t be denied that minimalism encourages people to constantly pursue ways of self-improvement, in general, a reduction in distractions and consumption and increased productivity, should be aspirational goals for society. Minimalism in the workspace simply involves being surrounded by the objects specifically required to produce your work, thus limiting yourself to do exactly that. Done right, minimalist design should improve people’s efficiency.
Minimalism Now
Something changed in 2020. The pandemic forced most people to work from home. The minimalist found that the spaces that they had created for themselves, designed to avoid distractions had a setback: lack of entertainment. They missed the old games that they had thrown away, the books they thought they wouldn’t want to reread, and the kitchen utensils that weren’t used frequently, they now saw those objects for their unrecognized potential. People learned the hard way the value of what they had been told was clutter. Besides, during the pandemic people had to adapt their living spaces into working areas, if minimalist design worked, confinement would have encouraged people to de-clutter, however, this wasn’t the case, instead, the reality is that the increased amount of time spent at home, made people want to improve their homes, and that improvement revolved around personifying the space.
The trend is now over; however, its principles can still benefit the work environment, as long as they are carried out to a manageable extent. Minimalist design can only be beneficial when it’s done within reason and logic. Those who systematically reduced their belongings were facing the constant effort of pushing the limit of what was valuable to them. The reductive nature of this mindset and its foundation on providing value to objects relied on a constant evaluation mental process that became stress-inducing, without a limit the style drifted from improving productivity to reducing humanity.
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Donna. (2023) How Minimalism Got Toxic: The Dark Side, YouTube_© https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfoRLgTlfQM&t=86s (Accessed: 02 November 2024).
Encina, M. (2019) Perfect Productive Workspace – Minimal Office + Desk Tour, YouTube_© https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNJYWHhXM58 (Accessed: 02 November 2024).
Future Proof. (2023) The PROBLEM With Minimalism, YouTube_© https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3INFBvKbLvs (Accessed: 02 November 2024).
Future Proof. (2024) The RISE of Maximalism, YouTube_© https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGLKOD6MaVU&t=14s (Accessed: 02 November 2024).
The Minimalist (2016) Ep. 001 | Declutter, YouTube_© https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKhQ75DfD2k (Accessed: 02 November 2024).
Yu, K. (2024) Things you DON’T NEED in your OFFICE | MINIMAL HOME ep. 1, YouTube_© https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POO4rtJeMMc (Accessed: 02 November 2024).
