búro

Büro is the German word for office, referring to a room or building where administrative work, correspondence, and managerial tasks are carried out. The term originally derives from the French word bureau, meaning desk or counter, and entered German in the early modern period. In contemporary German usage, Büro can denote both the physical space—the office environment—and the organization or department that occupies it.

Typical features of a Büro include workstations such as desks and chairs, computers, telephones, filing systems, and meeting rooms. Offices have evolved from closed, segregated spaces to open-plan layouts and, more recently, to flexible arrangements such as shared or home offices. The rise of digital tools, cloud computing, and telecommunication has transformed workflows, enabling remote work and hybrid models. The term Büro is often used in compounds such as Büroalltag (daily office routine), Bürokratie (bureaucracy), or Bürogebäude (office building).

Historically, the modern German Büro developed in the 19th and 20th centuries with industrialization, bureaucratic administration, and corporate organization. The design of offices has been influenced by efficiency studies and architectural trends, including open-plan concepts and, in some periods, hierarchies of space by function.

Outside of Germany, the word Büro is recognized in multilingual contexts as the German designation for office, contrasting with the English “office” or the French “bureau.”