The Role of Personal Control in Alleviating Negative Perceptions in the Open-Plan Workplace

Today’s office buildings adopt open-plan settings for collaboration and space efficiency. However, the open plan setting has been intensively criticized for its adverse user experiences, such as noise, privacy loss, and over cooling. The provision of personal control in open-plan work environments is an important means to alleviating the adverse perceptions. This research is to investigate the relationship between the availability of personal controls and the degree of control over the physical environment, as well as their effectiveness in alleviating adverse perceptions in open-plan workplaces. The study combined three systematic occupant survey tools and collected responses from open-plan offices in Shenzhen, China. Specifically, this survey covered 12 personal controls in open-plan workplaces; respondents were asked to report their degree of control over the physical environment and also were required to report if they had adverse perceptions such as sick building syndrome in their offices. The results showed that most of the 12 personal controls supported perceived degree of control over the physical environment but only half of them were negatively associated with adverse perceptions. Non-mechanical controls, such as windows and blinds, were found to be more effective than mechanical controls such as fans and air-conditioning in alleviating adverse perceptions. Conflicts were found between task/desk lights and other personal controls. The research generates important evidence for the interior design of open-plan offices.

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The Individual Factor and the Quality of Building’s Physical Environment in Correlation with the Occurrence of Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) on Employees of PT. Telkom Jembe

Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development ◽

10.37506/v11/i1/2020/ijphrd/194049 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 1465

Author(s):

Rizki Adi Sulistyanto ◽

Ragil Ismi Hartanti ◽

Prehatin Trirahayu Ningrum ◽

Abdul Rohim Tualeka

Keyword(s):

Physical Environment ◽

Sick Building Syndrome ◽

Individual Factor ◽

Sick Building ◽

The Individual

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Sick building syndrome in open‐plan offices

Journal of Facilities Management ◽

10.1108/14725961211265729 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 256-265 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Zhonghua Gou ◽

Stephen Siu‐Yu Lau

Keyword(s):

Sick Building Syndrome ◽

Sick Building ◽

Open Plan

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Designing healthy workspaces: results from Australian certified open-plan offices

Facilities ◽

10.1108/f-02-2020-0018 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Christhina Candido ◽

Samin Marzban ◽

Shamila Haddad ◽

Martin Mackey ◽

Angela Loder

Keyword(s):

Interior Design ◽

Personal Control ◽

Design Features ◽

Musculoskeletal Discomfort ◽

Content Type ◽

Work Area ◽

Depth Analysis ◽

Health Related ◽

Open Plan ◽

Active Design

Purpose From poor indoor environmental quality conditions to musculoskeletal discomfort, the interior design of workspaces has the potential to negatively affect human health. One of the key responses from industry has been the rise of health-related guidelines, certification and rating tools. Despite the rapid adoption of such tools by the Australian high-end corporate real estate, there is a scarcity of empirical evidence arising from such premises. This study aims to compare results from certified premises against other open-plan offices to understand differences arising from occupants’ satisfaction, perceived productivity and health. Design/methodology/approach A total of 1,121 post-occupancy evaluation (POE) surveys conducted in 9 offices were analyzed. All these premises hold a certification from the Green Building Council of Australia and two achieved a WELL rating. The analysis is performed in three parts: comparing WELL-certified (2 cases) and non-WELL certified (7 cases) offices along with comparison with a benchmark of 9,794 POE surveys from the BOSSA database, comparing activity-based working (ABW) (5 cases) and traditional (4 cases) offices along with comparison with BOSSA database and qualitative study of the similar design features in all 9 offices accompanied with an in-depth analysis of the health-related issues that might have occurred because of poor ergonomic design. For the first two parts, several t-tests are performed. Findings Highest scores for overall satisfaction, workability, perceived productivity and health were reported on WELL-rated premises. Offices incorporating active design principles outperformed others on workability, satisfaction with work area, collaboration, unwanted interruptions, perceived productivity and health. ABW environments outperformed the traditional offices on spatial comfort, thermal comfort, noise and privacy, personal control, comfort of furnishing, adjustability of the work area and space to collaborate. People using sit–stand workstations reported spending significantly less time seated and female workers were more prone to reporting pain over the past 12 months. The best-performing offices implemented active and biophilic design, prioritized overall ergonomics and different spaces designed to support a variety of work-related activities. Originality/value This research conducts a comparison between certified premises against other offices in terms of occupants’ satisfaction, perceived productivity and health. A qualitative analysis is also conducted to investigate personal and physical environmental aspects. The way of working (ABW or traditional), implementation of active design features, self-reported musculoskeletal discomfort and physical activity were also investigated. The study has taken a holistic approach to investigate many health-related physical, environmental and emotional aspects in certified workspaces.

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ORGANIC PLASTICS: MATERIAL FOR SICK BUILDING SYNDROME CONTROL AND PREVENTION IN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH ◽

10.29121/granthaalayah.v6.i6.2018.1365 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 (6) ◽

pp. 193-199

Author(s):

Obi Ifeanyi Chukwudi

Keyword(s):

Construction Industry ◽

Interior Design ◽

Construction Material ◽

Sick Building Syndrome ◽

Weight Ratio ◽

Wide Range ◽

Different Types ◽

Sick Building ◽

Control And Prevention ◽

Molecular Compounds

Plastics are organic materials, which consist of synthetic or natural high-molecular compounds (polymers). Due to the large variety of plastic, its different types have different properties, which make it possible to widely use this material in all fields of industry from packaging to the construction industry. The second highest consumer of organic plastics materials after packaging is the construction industry. Thanks to great versatility, cost effectiveness, durability, strength to weight ratio and low maintenance plastics appear to be economically attractive in the construction sector and are used in the manufacturing of wide range of materials in the construction industry. Plastics most times are not easily seen in buildings, but they are widely used in construction and building industry for a vast and wide range of materials, which include insulation, piping, interior design, piping and conduit (rain water, electrical conduits, and sewage pipes, gas distributions and plumbing). Piping and Conduit for instance can consume around 35% of plastic production and are one of the largest consumers of polymers in construction. The purpose of this research is to study plastic as a construction material that can be used to control the formation of Sick building syndrome in buildings, and also as a material that can often be used in the construction industry.

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The Rise of Office Design in High-Performance, Open-Plan Environments

Buildings ◽

10.3390/buildings9040100 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 100 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Christhina Candido ◽

Prithwi Chakraborty ◽

Dian Tjondronegoro

Keyword(s):

Interior Design ◽

High Performance ◽

Personal Control ◽

Outdoor Environment ◽

Office Design ◽

Work Related ◽

Post Occupancy Evaluation ◽

Biophilic Design ◽

Work Area ◽

Open Plan

This study aimed to identify key drivers behind workers’ satisfaction, perceived productivity, and health in open-plan offices while at the same time understanding design similarities shared by high-performance workspaces. Results from a dataset comprising a total of 8827 post-occupancy evaluation (POE) surveys conducted in 61 offices in Australia and a detailed analysis of a subset of 18 workspaces (n = 1949) are reported here. Combined, the database-level enquiry and the subset analysis helped identifying critical physical environment-related features with the highest correlation scores for perceived productivity, health, and overall comfort of the work area. Dataset-level analysis revealed large-size associations with spatial comfort, indoor air quality, building image and maintenance, noise distraction and privacy, visual comfort, personal control, and connection to the outdoor environment. All high-performance, open-plan offices presented a human-centered approach to interior design, purposely allocated spaces to support a variety of work-related tasks, and implemented biophilic design principles. These findings point to the importance of interior design in high-performance workspaces, especially in relation to open-plan offices.

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Sick Building Syndrome in Office Workers

Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine ◽

10.35371/kjoem.1996.8.3.519 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 519

Author(s):

Daehee Kang

Keyword(s):

Sick Building Syndrome ◽

Office Workers ◽

Sick Building

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Architecture and Mental Disorders: A Systematic Study of Peer-Reviewed Literature

HERD Health Environments Research & Design Journal ◽

10.1177/1937586720973767 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 193758672097376

Author(s):

Mais M. Aljunaidy ◽

Mohamad Nadim Adi

Keyword(s):

Mental Disorders ◽

Mental Disorder ◽

Interior Design ◽

Systematic Study ◽

Physical Environment ◽

Architectural Design ◽

Depressive Disorders ◽

Environment Design ◽

Major Health Problem ◽

Physical Environments

Objectives: To perform a systematic study about the contribution of architecture and interior design researchers in studying the effect of physical environment on mental disorders. Background: Mental disorders are a major health problem worldwide and related to severe distress, functional disabilities, and heavy economical burdens. Studies propose that physical environment design can trigger or reduce mental disorder symptoms. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the extent of architectural design research contribution to all types of mental disorder prevention or intervention. Methods: A team of cross-disciplinary researchers gathered information from peer-reviewed manuscripts about the effect of architectural design on enhancing or reducing mental disorder symptoms. Data were collected from manuscripts published between 2008 and 2020 (research related to the topic became clearer in quality and quantity then). Keywords including architecture, interior design, physical environment, and mental disorders were used in the systematic search. Databases were collected using online resources. Numerical data collected from quantitative studies were organized in tables. Results: Our data showed that there were a lot of studies about dementia and autism; few studies about schizophrenia, anxiety, stress-related disorders, and depressive disorders; and no studies about the rest of the mental disorders. General environment followed by housing facility design were the most assessed physical environments for mental disorders. Conclusions: As all mental disorders can have a significant impact on the society, we conclude that architectural studies should focus more on improving or preventing the symptoms of all types of mental disorders through the design of physical environments.

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