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Addressing work environment design methods has become increasingly important due to pandemic-induced changes in the ways and locations of work. This research addresses work environment design through a theory-informed workplace design framework to study the co-design process, the impact of spatial atmosphere on workplace experience and satisfaction, and infrequently studied spaces, i.e. meeting rooms and breakout areas. This case study is based on co-design methods, a workplace design intervention study and its evaluation. Comprehensive design is addressed through analytical dimensions of design, i.e. instrumental, symbolic, aesthetic and perceived dimensions of atmosphere and affordances. Furthermore, the spatial experience is explored through need-supply fit theory and workplace satisfaction. The pre-design results showed that employees have distinct design preferences based on perceived and analytical dimensions for technical, hybrid and creative meetings and individual work and recovery events. The workspace interventions were designed using the design information gathered from the co-design process; the changes implemented in intervention spaces increased employee satisfaction towards them. The study's methodology contributes to establishing a theory-informed workplace design framework supporting user-centred workplace design and evaluation and indicates a role for spatial atmosphere in need-supply fit formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activity-based flexible offices (AFOs) provide a variety of workspaces to meet the need for social interactions and privacy at work. This study investigates the relationship between the design characteristics of AFOs and users' perceptions of visual and acoustic privacy and social interactions. This case study is based on post-occupancy evaluations in three AFO layouts at a public service organization in Sweden. A mixed-method approach is adopted that combines questionnaires and layout analysis. In general, the results showed that while aesthetics received the highest satisfaction scores, office functionality, task support, storage and visual and acoustic privacy received the lowest ratings. Key design characteristics for AFOs were operationalized, observed and exemplified: zone diversity, proportion, readability, spatial enclosure, sharing ratios and functionality of furniture and tools. These insights may contribute to better-informed decisions about the design characteristics that influence privacy and social interactions in AFOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Better buildings' are intended to improve employee well-being and other important organizational productivity metrics, but such effects have been notoriously difficult to quantify convincingly. This paper uses new, multi-metric approaches to develop a framework for valuing these effects. The organizational productivity metrics considered are: absenteeism, employee turnover intent, self-assessed performance, job satisfaction, health and well-being, and complaints to the facilities manager. The effects of several ways of improving building design and operation (improved ventilation, enhanced lighting conditions, green building certification measures) are compared to the effects of other corporate strategies also employed with the intent of influencing employees to improve organizational productivity: office type (private vs open-plan), workplace health programs, bonuses, and flexible work options. Results were derived from a broad search and synthesis of published information from several disciplines: business, medicine, psychology, engineering, and facilities management. The scope was limited to studies conducted in real organizations in large office buildings, with a geographic focus on studies from North America, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand. In summary, better buildings strategies provided benefits on multiple organizational productivity metrics at levels similar to other corporate strategies. This supports greater consideration being given to better buildings strategies to improve organizational productivity beyond energy savings. In this paper, and for want of more primary research, the 'better buildings' category blends the effects of different improvements; this synthesis is proposed as a starting point to encourage more buildings research in this context, allowing future differentiation of the effects of specific interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study is to assess the indoor environmental quality of one of London's most modern workplaces; it is one which uses the Biophilia design approach, bringing nature inside office buildings. To evaluate the occupants' well-being, the research uses the Flourish wheel, which is based on both the built environment and the social environment. The built environment part of the study analyses the buildings' main features and the social environment part uses the qualitative method of interviewing the employees of the 'Second Home' company which designed the building. The occupants' responses provided evidence that Biophilic design is a promising approach to improved health, wellbeing and productivity in the workplace. However, the results show two points related to the company's use of this design. First, the use of Biophilia as an aesthetic value is not enough to reach the best environmental quality nor the occupants' expectations in the office environment. The second is that Biophilia needs to go hand in hand with other technological features, all equally well designed for controlling the quality of the indoor environment, such as thermal comfort, air quality, lighting, acoustic comfort, and suitable spatial layout in offices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the course of the twentieth century the Belgian wood firm De Coene, established in the late-nineteenth century, underwent a thorough modernisation. The company started off as a family business that specialised in art deco interiors and the importation of wood from the Belgian colony of the Congo, but quickly developed into an industrialised producer of cutting-edge modern furniture and building materials. This article explores the context for the Flemish company's various innovations and products in the decades after the Second World War, in particular De Coene's new headquarters, built on the factory grounds in Kortrijk in 1964. It approaches the building and its furnishings as valuable objects of study to increase our understanding of the changing perceptions of wood in the context of the post-war industrialisation in Belgium, the gradually liberalising European market, and the country's changing relationship to the Congo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of an independent samples experiment designed to examine the effects of the presence of a large poster depicting a natural woodland scene on individual performance on two Divergent Thinking tasks. In comparison to the no-poster control condition, the presentation of a large poster depicting a nature scene was found to lead to greater levels of creativity as rated by judges who were blind to the experimental design. The effects of the large poster on Divergent Thinking were found to hold when controlling for Openness-to-Experience and Mood. Exploratory analyses of participant ratings of room characteristics indicated that the mechanism underlying the posters' effect related to elevated stimulation. Practitioner summary: This study compared the effects of presenting a large poster depicting a natural woodland scene (experimental condition) versus no poster (control condition) on individual creative thinking. Three judges, who were unaware of the design of the study, did not know the participant responses were from two different conditions and who did not facilitate the experiment rated the responses of the participants who were exposed to the large poster as significantly more creative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Office design has been demonstrated to influence knowledge sharing within (large) organizations located in single-tenant buildings. For business centres, where organizations share spaces, facilities and services, it is often assumed that social networking and knowledge sharing between organizations occur even more frequently. However, empirical research with regard to the effects of the physical design of business centre offices on social networking and knowledge sharing behaviour is still limited, despite the growing number of business centres. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to analyse the effects of the physical work environment on perceived social networking and knowledge sharing behaviour within and between organizations in business centres. Data collected among 268 users of 53 business centres in the Netherlands was analysed using path analysis. Results showed that using a lounge room is most effective for knowledge sharing between organizations. Moreover, meeting spaces and flexibly used workspaces appear to be important for knowledge sharing within organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between energy use and height is examined for a sample of 611 office buildings in England and Wales using actual annual metered consumption of electricity and fossil fuels. The buildings are of different ages; they have different construction characteristics and methods of heating and ventilation; and they include both public and commercial offices. When rising from five storeys and below to 21 storeys and above, the mean intensity of electricity and fossil fuel use increases by 137% and 42% respectively, and mean carbon emissions are more than doubled. A multivariate regression model is used to interpret the contributions of building characteristics and other factors to this result. Air-conditioning is important, but a trend of increased energy use with height is also found in naturally ventilated buildings. Newer buildings are not in general more efficient: the intensity of electricity use is greater in offices built in recent decades, without a compensating decrease in fossil fuel use. The evidence suggests it is likely -- although not proven -- that much of the increase in energy use with height is due to the greater exposure of taller buildings to lower temperatures, stronger winds and more solar gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is a trend in today’s organisations to implement activity-based flexible offices (A-FOs), only a few studies examine consequences of this new office type. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms why A-FOs might lead to different consequences as compared to cellular and open-plan offices are still unclear. This paper introduces a theoretical framework explaining benefits and risks of A-FOs based on theories from work and organisational psychology. After deriving working conditions specific for A-FOs (territoriality, autonomy, privacy, proximity and visibility), differences in working conditions between A-FOs and alternative office types are proposed. Further, we suggest how these differences in working conditions might affect work-related consequences such as well-being, satisfaction, motivation and performance on the individual, the team and the organisational level. Finally, we consider task-related (e.g. task variety), person-related (e.g. personality) and organisational (e.g. leadership) moderators. Based on this model, future research directions as well as practical implications are discussed. Practitioner Summary:Activity-based flexible offices (A-FOs) are popular in today’s organisations. This article presents a theoretical model explaining why and when working in an A-FO evokes benefits and risks for individuals, teams and organisations. According to the model, A-FOs are beneficial when management encourages employees to use the environment appropriately and supports teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Office workers are commonly targeted in interventions to modify their sitting behaviour, yet there is limited evidence of the correlates of breaks in sitting to inform intervention development. This study identifies the individual, workplace and spatial configuration correlates of the frequency of breaks in sitting (number/hour) in office workers (n = 5531) stratified by office type (private-enclosed, shared, open plan). All behaviours and potential correlates were measured via self-report using an online cross-sectional survey. Regression analyses revealed age was the only socio-demographic characteristic associated with frequency of breaks in sitting in all office types. Greater job autonomy and local connectivity were positively associated with frequency of breaks in sitting in shared and open-plan offices. In open-plan offices co-worker proximity was negatively associated with frequency of breaks in sitting. Co-worker visibility was positively associated with frequency of breaks in sitting in all office types. This study demonstrates that individual, workplace and spatial configuration factors are all associated with the frequency of breaks in sitting and that these relationships differ by office type. These observations extend prior studies that have only examined correlates at a single level (e.g.the individual). This evidence could be useful to guide future interventions in the design of workplaces to increase breaks in sitting and workers’ physical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to explore the role of the physical environment for creative employees. The results are based on interviews with office-working digital artists. The physical work environment was considered to offer three types of support for creative work for the participants: functional, psychosocial and inspirational. Creative processes would find better breeding ground if functional support, such as adequate lighting and tools, and psychosocial support, such as spatial possibilities for both privacy and communication, were provided. Without inspirational support, such as brainstorming rooms, dynamic planning and imaginative interior design, the work outcome was believed to become less creative. The physical environmental support model can be used by companies with an interest to provide creativity supportive workplaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of different types of complexity facing novice designers in constraint satisfaction tasks. The nature of the complexity in a design task was varied by manipulating different aspects of the extrinsic constraints, which refer to restrictions concerning how design components can be assembled. We investigated the effect of the number of constraints (Study 1) and the number of different types of constraint (Study 2) in a simulated office design task. Results indicated that tackling a design task with a greater number of constraints, or more types of constraint, resulted in decrements in performance. Study 3 examined the effect of reasoning about constraints that involved a fixed location in the office layout and those that did not. It was found that having a higher proportion of constraints that referenced a fixed location led to better design performance. The theoretical and practical aspects of these results are discussed. Practitioner summary:This paper identifies sources of constraint complexity facing the novice designer in an office design task. Three features of constraints proved problematic: the number of constraints, the number of types of constraint and whether the constraint involved a specific location. Training and decision support solutions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Office design is a frequently discussed but little understood topic in public management. This study examines the relationship between a set of office design characteristics (density, darkness, indoor environment, ergonomic design) and employees' perceived behavioral outcomes (turnover intention, perceived health problems, perceived work effectiveness). Data were drawn from 508 public employees in a state human services agency. The results found that office characteristics were negatively related to employees' turnover intention and perceived health problems, and positively related to perceived effectiveness at work, when controlling for satisfaction with pay and supervision and individual employee characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research suggests that buildings with operable windows in general, and mixed-mode (MM) buildings in particular, can provide improved thenlaal comfort and control opportunities for users. However, there have been concerns about outdoor noise sources such as traffic or construction noise when windows are opened. Concerns like these may hinder the installation of operable windows in buildings. This article examines 23,000 office building occupants' perspectives on noise from both sealed and naturally ventilated/MM buildings. The results suggest that occupants near operable windows are more satisfied than those near sealed windows or those far from either window type. Among occupants dissatisfied with noise, complaints about indoor noise sources (such as people talking to each other) are about 10 times more prevalent than outdoor noise complaints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation has become one of the key drivers for growth. However, how do we bring about innovation which is both radical and respects the limits of the world? One of our key assumptions is that we have to take into consideration the epistemological and cognitive processes leading to (radically) new knowledge first. We propose an approach that establishes spaces enabling such processes of knowledge creation we refer to them as Enabling Spaces. This article is concerned with the question of how innovation, and more specifically, profound, radical and sustainable innovation can be brought about in a more qualitative manner. What are the necessary concepts and attitudes which facilitate the processes of innovation? The notion of enabling as opposed to 'managing' or controlling innovation is to be developed. Furthermore the concept of situated/extended cognition is discussed as a key ingredient for Enabling Spaces. The second part gives an overview of the concept of Enabling Spaces and of the design process leading to such spaces. Finally the concrete case of a knowledge-creating university is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cognitive task demands of office workers and the self-control demands of their work roles were measured in a sample of 196 employees in two different office layouts using a self-report questionnaire, which was circulated electronically. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that both factors were associated with mental well-being, but not with physical well-being, while controlling for exposure to psychosocial stressors. The interaction between cognitive task demands and self-control demands had the strongest association with mental well-being, suggesting that the deleterious effect of one was greater when the other was present. An exploratory analysis revealed that the association was stronger for employees working in a large open-plan office than for those working in smaller offices with more privacy. Frustration of work goals was the cognitive task demand having the strongest negative impact on mental well-being. Methodological limitations and scale psychometrics (particularly the use of the NASA Task Load Index) are discussed. Statement of Relevance: Modern office work has high mental demands and low physical demands and there is a need to design offices to prevent adverse psychological reactions. It is shown that cognitive task demands interact with self-control demands to degrade mental well-being. The association was stronger in an open-plan office. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tubular daylight guidance systems (TDGS) are linear devices that channel daylight into the core of a building. The experience of some of the first uses of TDGS is explored in actual buildings in UK temperate latitudes. The nature of the systems and the factors influencing the costs and various benefits that contribute value are identified. Lighting systems in working offices, lit by electric lighting and daylight guidance, were surveyed. Data on the physical characteristics of the systems, lighting conditions achieved, and user views were collected. The results formed the input to a cost and value analysis which permitted the economic limits of the systems to be evaluated. A number of daylight and environmental benefits were identified as value items, but the systems were clearly uneconomic in cost terms as presently configured and used. Long-term cost-value was compared with electric lighting alternatives making assumptions about future energy costs and system configurations. Some pitfalls of attempting to integrate innovative technology into existing lighting systems are identified and remedies suggested. Les systemes tubulaires de guidage de la lumiere du jour (TDGS) sont des dispositifs lineaires qui canalisent la lumiere du jour jusqu'au centre d'un batiment. L'auteur analyse quelques-unes des premieres applications des TDGS dans des batiments existants au Royaume-Uni, sous des latitudes temperees. Il identifie la nature des systemes et les facteurs qui ont des incidences sur les couts et les divers avantages qui contribuent a la valeur de ces systemes. Il etudie les systemes d'eclairage electrique et de guidage de la lumiere du jour utilises dans les bureaux. Il a recueilli des donnees sur les caracteristiques physiques de ces systemes, sur les conditions d'eclairage obtenues et sur le point de vue des utilisateurs. Ces resultats ont servi a une analyse de cout et de valeur qui a permis d'evaluer les limites economiques de ces systemes. On a identifie un certain nombre d'avantages de la lumiere du jour et de l'environnement comme etant des elements interessants mais il est clair que ces systemes ne sont pas rentables en termes de cout tel qu'ils sont actuellement configures et utilises. On a compare l'ensemble cout-valeur a long terme a des alternatives d'eclairage electrique et elabore des hypotheses sur l'avenir des couts energetiques et des configurations de tels systemes. On a identifie quelques obstacles a l'integration de technologies novatrices dans les systemes d'eclairage existant et on a suggere des solutions. Mots cles: Mots-cles: technologies alternatives, lumiere du jour, retour d'information, systemes de guidage, conduits de lumiere, systemes d'eclairage, conception de bureaux, evaluation technologique, valeur [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]