You're a high-technology business owner always on the prowl for the best and brightest employees. When you compete with the entrypoint.coms and mp3.coms of the world, keep in mind that issues besides salary and benefits, even stock options, are in play in the recruiting game — the brave new world of high-tech office design.

So for mp3.com, the design team at Howard- Sneed Architecture and Design created an indoor village of free-standing huts to replace cubicles for engineers and codewriters; a full-service private health club in place of the old-hat company gym; and large "fun spaces" to supplant corridors and coffee rooms as employee gathering spaces — all fully wired for Internet, modem, cable and phone access, of course.

The need for such nontraditional work environments reflects more than just the lifestyle tastes of younger high-tech workers. Space designers agree that the very nature of the work, especially at fast-changing Internet companies, requires radically different spaces for intense activity, be it work or play.

On the engineering floor at mp3.com, for example, two or three people work at computers in low-light, hut-like structures with translucent plastic walls. Outside their shared office space, however, are broad, free-form spaces furnished with chairs, sofas and tables in bright primary colors. All furniture is modular and movable. The huts meet the need for private, silent, cave-like space for the intensive work of design, Internet codewriting and engineering, while the open spaces function as relief space, with room for play and for creative collaboration.

This arrangement reflects several trends unique to San Diego’s burgeoning high-tech sector, reports Chris Veum, president of the San Diego architectural and engineering firm of Austin Veum Robbins Parshalle.

First is the focus on how a client's employees work, alone and together. "When one of these companies begins planning new space," Veum says, "the executives know that their employees are the most important asset. So they want to provide an environment where employees are comfortable, but are still stimulated and creative."

One increasingly important way to do this is to disregard the traditional emphasis on corporate real estate, he says, in which more and better space is an index of an individual's organizational status. Instead, the planning of new space at high-tech firms begins by studying employees' work styles and interaction patterns.

"We plan the space according to functions and projects," says Deborah Elliott, design principal at Carrier Johnson Architecture, rather than for status and corporate structure. Her firm calls the process "community planning," putting together the people who work together, regardless of their niche in the hierarchy.

At entrypoint.com, designed by Smith Consulting Architects, this trend has translated into an entire firm of 70 people and only a single private office. Only the human resources director, charged with maintaining confidential personnel files, has an office with a door and lock.

"It has reached the point where a corner office with a window is on the spoke of the wheel," observes Phil Jennings, president of Next/Design Team of San Diego. "In a knowledge-based company, it’s much more important to be at the hub."

The second trend in office planning, designers agree, is to preserve maximum flexibility. "Our clients know they're going to grow, but they don’t know where or how," Elliott says. "So we see them looking for the bigger floorplates. That way, they can move their people around as their projects, or even their businesses, change."

Both of these trends are reflected in the types of office furniture these companies select. At entrypoint.com, roomy cubicles house four people, often performing different functions, and cube walls are so low that a standing employee can see the outside world from wall to wall. Most furniture pieces are on casters.

Employee amenities are the third trend important in planning the next generation of office space. Says Anne Sneed of Howard-Sneed, "When employees jokingly ask for in-office steam baths and personal masseuses, what they're really searching for are spaces to regroup their thoughts and refocus on their priorities." Thus Howard-Sneed has designed spaces which include Starbucks-style latte bars and playrooms featuring Nerf basketball courts, foosball, ping-pong, billiard tables. In the near future, she adds, don’t be surprised to find progressive dot.coms featuring rock-climbing walls, Internet/laundry cafes and jam rooms for the musically inclined.

Such amenities play at least two key roles in the technology workplace, designers agree. First is to rejuvenate employees by allowing them to let off steam after countless hours of intense concentration. Second is the important role such creative facilities play in the recruitment and retention of the coveted tech-savvy employee.

"This is absolutely of critical importance to our high-tech clients," Veum says. "One client believes that half his potential employees probably decide whether or not to work for him as they walk in the door."

Veum cites WebSideStory as an example of another company that has intentionally used its space as a recruiting tool. "They have three touch-screen monitors right in the lobby so people can get on the Internet while they're waiting. WebSideStory is their Web page, so it is accessible right as you come in."

Cutting-edge design and amenities also make clear to potential employees that their would-be employer has listened to its staffers in the creation of a comfortable, playful place.

But designing high-tech office space has its pitfalls, says Kathleen Roarty, assistant professor of environmental psychology at San Diego’s Newschool of Architecture. "Designers like to use high-tech materials because they are a visual metaphor for the business the client is in." However, Roarty says, the grays and blacks emblematic of high-tech design are actually quite stressful for employees, especially for their vision.

"High-contrast environments of black and white look great in a photograph, but they can be difficult to work in. From a visual ergonomics standpoint, the pupil of the eye is constantly enlarging and shrinking, and this causes eye fatigue and headaches," she points out.

Perhaps in recognition of this hazard, entrypoint.com's Dee Conger, vice president of business development, says he emphasized to Smith Consulting Architects that warmer tones should be featured in the company’s workspace. Thus, equally prominent with the high-tech slate gray of the cubicle dividers are the warm wood tones of the office furniture. Entrypoint.com also permits wide latitude for employees to personalize their space.

Another challenge, says Elliott of Carrier Johnson, is the inability of some youthful executives to explain what they want in their office interior. "They know they want a fun atmosphere, but they don’t know how to articulate it," she says. "Some of them don’t have much experience in office environments."

To overcome this problem, Elliott says she collects pictures, objects, color chips, advertisements, work samples — anything that can give her clients concrete ideas to help visualize a design detail or the overall final look and layout of their project.

So how much does it cost to be on the cutting edge of dot.com design? Designers Veum and Elliott indicate that while the typical traditionally designed spaces run $28 to $45 per square foot, "dot.com" design runs from $35 to $55. Like all clients, Elliott adds, some "want their space what they want it to be," almost without regard to cost, while others are on stricter budgets.

What they have in common, she adds, is that almost all high-tech projects are on very short timelines. "Often they have just a three-year lease, so they are anxious to get into their space and start working."

While he agrees with many of the trends these designers see, Jennings believes that the newest movement in high-tech office design will take workers out of centralized offices altogether. Jennings' firm specializes in small- and home-office space planning.

"In a knowledge-based economy such as we have here in San Diego, as long as employees are connecting with one another, it doesn’t matter where they are," Jennings observes. "What matters is sharing information and knowledge. Technology enables us to do that from anywhere."