The Transdisciplinary Workplace Research (TWR) Network met recently. The practitioners, researchers, and practitioner-researchers doing the most significant and applicable office design-related work, worldwide, attended and key material discussed is shared here.
Vital insights for NOW
Research at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for the Built Environment (CBE) indicates that there may be more flexibility in setting workplace temperatures than previously thought.
Loder and Stoner review studies related to nature (plants, nature views, etc.) in work environments. They share, for example, that “Research has shown that contact with nature
Learning from the past for the future
Colenberg and Tuuli thoroughly investigated how workplace design can support worker health. They determined via a multi-disciplinary literature review that “It is widely recognized that interior office space can affect health in several ways. Strategic and evidence-based design, including explicit design objectives, well-chosen design solutions and evaluation of results, aid realization of desired health effects. Therefore, this paper aims to identify possibly effective interior design strategies and accompanying design solutions. . . .
Ronda and de Gracia investigated how workplace aesthetics influence decisions to join an organization. They report that “aesthetic attributes in the workplace can be equally important in the decision-making process as non-aesthetic attributes and that aesthetic attributes deliver as much utility as non-aesthetic attributes in driving job choice. . . .
Colenberg and colleagues studied available privacy and workplace satisfaction. They report that “Eight design features were defined that were expected to influence visual, acoustic and physical privacy, noise from other people and acoustic quality, and which would be easy to report for users. Data were collected through an online survey among office workers in the Dutch public sector. . . . The data indicate that small, relatively isolated rooms predict privacy and noise satisfaction better than privacy screens, soft flooring, and visibility control.
Koohsari and colleagues studied how worker perceptions of workplace layouts influence how active they are during the day. The investigators had study participants report their physical activity during the workday and provide details on the design of their workplace. The Koohsari team interprets their findings by sharing that "There may be a disincentive to move around the office in shared and open-plan offices because of the disruption to work or the potential to be judged. It may be possible that seeing others (shared and open-plan offices) sitting acts as a cue also to sit more (social
Common sense and establishing relative sizes for zones