sally's blog

Kemp and Williams analyzed business meetings in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  What they learned is useful to people developing work environments in the UAE and neighboring countries with similar business behavior.  Kemp and Williams found that “the Gulf Arab region offers an eclectic mix of different cross-cultural interactions, when business meetings are being conducted. Using . . . data about [scheduled] meetings held in three large organizations, each with a diverse cross-cultural workforce . . .

Rodgers investigates the relationship between newsroom design and news reported through a case study of the Toronto Star workspace. His project is important because the link between the physical environment and the reporting of news is infrequently researched and reported news can have a significant influence on future events.  Much of Rodgers’ text will sound familiar to people who have investigated other work environments: “The city desk is composed of circulations, proximities, and connections.

Operating rooms that are too noisy are just as difficult to work in as offices where ambient noise is too loud.  Bush, Way, Long, Weighing, Ritchie, Jones, and Shinn investigated working in operating rooms: “Ambient background noise—whether it is the sound of loud surgical equipment, talkative team members, or music—is a patient and surgical safety factor that can affect auditory processing among surgeons and the members of their team in the operating room (OR) . . . .

Many athletes choose to wear red while competing.  Farrelly, Slater, Elliott, Walden, and Wetherell set out to learn more about athletes and red.  They found that “males who chose red as their color in a competitive task had higher testosterone levels than other males who chose blue . . . . Choosing to wear red ‘may, unconsciously, signal something about their competitive nature, and it may well be something that affects how their opponents respond,’ Farrelly explains.”

How does building green influence commercial property values?  The answer to this question suggests the psychological implications of green design and construction.  Chegut, Eichholtz, and Kok found that “over the 2000–09 period, the expanding supply of green buildings within a given London neighbourhood had a positive impact on average rents and prices, but reduced rents and prices for environmentally certified real estate. The results suggest that there is a gentrification effect from green buildings.”

Congdon and Gall present Steelcase’s recent research linking culture and design, which builds on the work of others, such as Geert Hofstede, in useful graphics at the web address noted in the citation, below.  They describe their project succinctly: “Researchers at Steelcase, the office furniture company, have identified six dimensions of workplace culture that shape an office’s social dynamics . . . .

The Society of College and University Planning (SCUP) awarded its Chapman Prize to Susan Painter, Janice Fournier, Caryn Grape, Phyllis Grummon, Jill Morelli, Susan Whitmer, and Joseph Cevetello, and they used the prize money to research how libraries (and library design) can best serve current and potential users.  SCUP quotes from their soon to be released monograph, “Research on Learning Space Design:  Present State, Future Direc

Pro-environmental behavior doesn’t always feel good; and this can complicate designers’ efforts to promote green behavior.  Venhoeven and her team asked “why would acting pro-environmentally decrease one’s well-being, and why would it increase one’s well-being?”  They “conclude that part of the answer lies in a different view on what well-being entails, and more specifically, whether the focus is on hedonic well-being (i.e., feeling pleasure) or eudaim

Urban trees have been shown to have mental health and economic benefits in the past (urban trees are also discussed at https://researchdesignconnections.com/pub/oasis-effect-small-parks-and-u...).  New research by the United States Forest service quantifies this effect.  Researchers determined that urban trees “store an estimated 708 million tons of carbon, an environmental service with an estimated value of $50 billion . . . .

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have found more reasons to flood interior spaces with sunlight and create outdoor spaces where people can absorb sunshine. (For additional information on daylighting, see, for example, https://researchdesignconnections.com/pub/what-makes-home-office-good-wo....)  The team in Edinburgh  report that “Exposing skin to sunlight may help to reduce blood pressure, cut the risk of heart attack and stroke – and even prolong life . . .