place science

Research conducted by a Kerimova-lead team indicates how different the space assessments of different user groups can be.  They determined via an eye-tracking based study that “Green zones and parking lots differentially affect the preferences of people who own cars and those who do not. . . . Two interest groups—. . . people who owned a car and . . . people who did not a car—observed . . . images of courtyards. Images were digitally modified to manipulate the spatial arrangement of key courtyard elements: green zones, parking lots, and children’s playgrounds.

Ming, Deng, and Wu determined that experiencing air-pollution has predictable effects on Earth friendly-type decisions, ones that design may need to help overcome.  The investigators found that “People are less willing to engage in PEB [pro-environmental behaviors] (e.g., purchasing pro-environmental products, recycling, sustainable travel, donation to environmental organizations) when air pollution is severe. . . . This is because the negative mood triggered by air pollution inhibits their willingness to engage in PEB.”

Ramasubu and Bardhan’s work does not directly discuss providing workers with control of their physical environments, but the team’s findings can be extended to doing so.  The researchers report that they “assess the causal impacts of adopting an organizational policy that grants higher levels of autonomy to project teams. . . . we posit that an organizational policy that provides higher levels of autonomy for software teams engenders performance-enhancing adaptations through agile reconfigurations of project operations.

Pic and Han evaluated how children play indoors and outside.  They report that their “study explored peer conflict among preschoolers during indoor and outdoor free play in a nature-based preschool.  We collected data through observations and video recordings. . . .

Research linked creativity and walking some time ago.  Murali and Handel build on prior studies and report that “Creativity, specifically divergent thinking, has been shown to benefit from unrestrained walking. . . .  [during the Murali/Handel project, creativity test] scores were higher during walking than sitting. . . .  participants either walked freely or in a restricted path, or sat freely or fixated on a screen. . . . similar to unrestrained [or free] walking, unrestrained sitting also improves divergent thinking. . . .