I've been thinking about that recently. How would you engineer a workplace that is amenable to say...sustained work?
Currently I'm my image of the ideal workplace (assuming no resource constraints) hovers around: quick internet, sufficient computing power, multiple screens, +100sqft/employee, spacious desks, 1-3 person offices,
windows (the glass version), lighting, etc. It's a wishlist, for sure.
Then there's also the question of an ideal restplace. I believe most people (including me) are incapable of doing challenging work for 8 hours a day, and anyone who thinks that we are is lying to himself. I think 2 hours are good, 4 brilliant, and 6 are almost impossible. That means from 9-5 there's at least 2 hours, if not 6 spent doing things that are somewhere between work and decidedly not-work. If I could use that time to think/nap/mediate/sit in a really nice massage chair in a quiet room, I'd be a lot better rested. Fully resting instead of pretending-to-work-resting should be more time efficient and more effective, which hopefully allows you to take on more challenging work after a shorter rest.
Thinking deeply about issues seems to be another component of knowledge work. How do you set out thinkspace? Trails, gardens, mazes, solitude and complex layouts seem to lend themselves to getting lost in a problem, but that's just a personal hunch and requires more study.
I think the fundamental difference between knowledge workers and industrial workers is that industrial work solves a given problem thousand times a day, and that knowledge work (ideally) solves any given problem once, and if it crops up twice, you automate and abstract till it solves itself. That requires a different approach, and therefore a different environment to facilitate.