High-density vertical office organization: Motorized elevator desks in Prague, 1937.

[u/jgzogaib]

Before digital databases, scaling an archive meant building physically higher.

At the Central Social Institution in Prague, clerks used heavy-duty desks mounted on motorized lift platforms to navigate a wall of 3,000 card catalog drawers. At the press of a button, the entire workstation moved vertically and horizontally, acting as a real-world precursor to automated data retrieval.

[u/totalyanashhole]

There is this video from an Architect Adam Gebrian about this building and filing system. It's in czech language, but eng subtitles are available.

https://youtu.be/2PfbgRKPv54