Floor Plan

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 . . . .

Galvan and her research team have gathered additional evidence indicating that acoustically shielded telephone booths/rooms/conversation areas are useful in workplaces, transportation hubs, healthcare facilities, and anywhere else people can potentially overhear telephone conversations.  During the first study “to have observed cognitive effects of cell phone conversations on bystanders in a realistic context . . .

Carbone and Nauth, respected futurists, have written about the homes of 2022 in The Futurists.  They project many changes for the form of houses 10 years from now, as well as changes in how we will use our homes, including, “As the need for wired power and data access falls away—and new interfaces emerge—more-flexible home designs may come into vogue. Rather than dedicated media rooms or home offices, spaces may be more flexible and adaptive; residents may be able to work or play in any room that suits their preferences . . . .

A recent study at the University of Michigan supports co-locating team members.  Owen-Smith, Kabo, Levenstein, Price, Davis, Hwang and Nessler learned that “Researchers who occupy the same building are 33 percent more likely to form new collaborations than researchers who occupy different buildings, and scientists who occupy the same floor are 57 percent more likely to form new collaborations than investigators who occupy different buildings.”  The team believes that their “findings have wide relevance to corporations, as well.