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This study explores if multiple alterations of the classrooms' indoor environmental conditions, which lead to environmental conditions meeting quality class A of Dutch guidelines, result in a positive effect on students' perceptions and performance. A field study, with a between-group experimental design, was conducted during the academic course in 2020–2021. First, the reverberation time (RT) was lowered in the intervention condition to 0.4 s (control condition 0.6 s). Next, the horizontal illuminance (HI) level was raised in the intervention condition to 750 lx (control condition 500 lx). Finally, the indoor air quality (IAQ) in both conditions was improved by increasing the ventilation rate, resulting in a reduction of carbon dioxide concentrations, as a proxy for IAQ, from ~1100 to

A large proportion of the global workforce migrated home during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. It remains unclear what the exact differences between home workers and non-home workers were, especially during the pandemic when a return to work was imminent. How were building, workplace, and related facilities associated with workers’ perceptions and health? What are the lessons to be learned? Lifelines Corona Research Initiative was used to compare employees’ workplaces and related concerns, facilities, work quality, and health in a complete case analysis (N = 12,776) when return to work was imminent. Mann-Whitney U, logistic regression, and Wilcoxon matched-pairs were used for analyses. Notwithstanding small differences, the results show that home workers had less favourable scores for concerns about and facilities of on-site buildings and workplaces upon return to work, but better scores for work quality and health than non-home workers. However, additional analyses also suggest that building, workplace, and related facilities may have had the capacity to positively influence employees’ affective responses and work quality, but not always their health.

Our presence in buildings is often so self-evident that we no longer seem to be aware of the space in which we work and live. But how does that actually work? What is the influence of buildings on people? And how do we involve end users? Mark Mobach takes us on a quest of the Facility Management professorship for properties of the built environment that determine a positive influence on people. His approach is multidisciplinary, with a lot of attention for health and well-being.

Livesessie met praktijkpartners voor de ontwikkeling van een diagnose-instrument voor de werkomgeving

The role that the physical environment plays in value creation is changing. Place is becoming an ever more critical role in people’s willingness to come and spend time in a given environment. There are vital linkages between place-making and place maintenance. This session will discuss the emergence of place-making and place-governance systems like the Baukultur Quality System. Baukultur is a German term that describes the “culture of building.” The concept includes any, and every, human activity that changes the built environment. Baukultur calls for new construction and existing infrastructure and public space to be understood as a single entity. Interdisciplinary and multisectorial exchanges will be required to develop comprehensive, holistic, and transdisciplinary understanding of the built environment. This panel debate focuses on how assessment models like these change the facility manager’s role in facilitating the built environment for sustainability and people’s well-being.

The second phase of the GO! Noord-Netherland-project is finalized by the 1sth of December 2022. In May a last meeting was organized for all consortium members. The project was evaluated and new horizons were explored.

GO staat voor een Gezonde leefOmgeving. Doel van GO! Noord Nederland is stapsgewijs samen met bewoners kansen identificeren en benutten om de leefomgeving in dorpen gezonder in te richten, door slimme aanpassingen in de openbare ruimte.

Presentatie over het belang van een gezonde werk-en leefomgeving waarbij mens en ruimte centraal staat.

Presentatie onderzoeksresultaten binnen het thema Gezondheid&Welzijn

Reflection on workshops and concise discussion with prize winners.

This dissertation presents research on customers’ perceptions of cleanliness in service environments. The research contributes to the gap in the literature on cleanliness examined from a customer perspective, and adds to the understanding of environmental cues that influence perceived cleanliness. Part one of the dissertation includes the operationalisation of the concept of perceived cleanliness and the development of an instrument to measure perceived cleanliness. Results showed that perceived cleanliness consists of three dimensions: cleaned, fresh, and uncluttered. Next, the Cleanliness Perceptions Scale (CP-scale) was developed and validated in different service environments, resulting in a 12 item questionnaire that can be used to measure perceived cleanliness in service environments. Part two includes the experimental research on the effects of different environmental cues on perceived cleanliness. It furthermore explores to what extent the effects of these environmental cues on perceived cleanliness can be explained by the concept of priming. The experiments demonstrated that particular environmental cues influence perceived cleanliness: the visible presence of cleaning staff, light colour, light scent, and uncluttered architecture positively influence customers’ perceptions of cleanliness in service environments. Also, empirical support was found for priming as one of the mechanisms involved in the effects. Part three reflects on the implications of the dissertation for theory and practice. The research provides knowledge that is relevant for the fields of facility management, service marketing, social psychology, and environmental psychology. The dissertation improves the understanding of the concept of perceived cleanliness by enabling scholars and practitioners to measure the concept and the effects of particular environmental cues in service environments.

Facilitating the combination of breastfeeding and workResearch has shown that breastfeeding has important long-term health effects on both children and mothers. The World Health Organization therefore recommends that children be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life and that breastfeeding be continued thereafter, alongside complementary feeding, until children are at least two years old. However, many mothers experience problems with breastfeeding and stop earlier than they would like. One of the reasons that women stop prematurely is the often difficult combination of breastfeeding and work. In this dissertation Van Dellen studied what organizations can do to support breastfeeding employees, both before the return to work and in the period afterwards. Before the return to work, a breastfeeding support programma appears to be an effective way to support mothers. Within the programme, women received structural support from a lactation consultant, from pregnancy until ten weeks after birth. Mothers who received the support programme were on average 66% less likely to stop breastfeeding compared to mothers who did not receive support. After the return to work, the quality of lactation rooms appears to play an important role. Lactation room quality is positively related to satisfaction, perceived ease, and perceived support for milk expression at work. Moreover, experimental research found that mothers in a high-quality lactation room experienced less stress, more control, and more well-being than mothers in a low-quality lactation room.The results of the study show that organizations can better support breastfeeding employees by offering structural support from a lactation consultant and high-quality lactation rooms.