Myerson was commissioned by Brooker (University of Brighton) and Weinthal (University of Texas at Austin) to write the Workspace chapter for a peer-reviewed anthology of new writing by international scholars that aims to present a more dynamic picture of the interior design discipline, freeing it from the ‘limited lens’ of vocational techniques to explore its histories, theories, psychological and technological issues. The research used a comparative study of the Larkin Building interior (Buffalo, New York, 1904) and the Google Building interior (Zurich, 2008) as markers for a more generic shift from machine to network – from the industrial era of scientific management to the digital era of the knowledge-led organisation.
The chapter builds significantly on Myerson’s address at the ‘Networks of Design 2008 Annual International Design History Conference’, University College Falmouth, UK: 'Power of the network: Transitions in working life from Taylorist time and motion to networked space' was published in an online book (eds. Hackney, Glynn and Minton 2008). Both the book chapter and the published lecture can be seen as advancing the idea of network theory as a growing platform for rethinking interior workspace design.
Interior design has struggled to define itself as a discipline in relation to architecture and Myerson was keen to contribute a piece of new writing that emphasises the important role of interior designers in making more effective workspaces. He was invited to speak on the historical evolution of office interior design in the V&A Museum’s Art and Design 1900–2012 course lecture, convened by Gregory Votolato (2012). His paper 'Designing with the people, for the people and by the people' at the Design History Society’s annual conference ‘Design Activism and Social Change’, Barcelona (Myerson and Lee 2011) drew on key themes of the chapter and was published online (ed. Guy Julier, V&A).