Identifying interior design strategies for healthy workplaces – a literature review

Purpose 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 and to provide examples of effectiveness measures. Design/methodology/approach A literature sample of 59 peer-reviewed papers published across disciplines was used to collect examples of workplace design features that have positively influenced workers’ well-being. The papers were grouped by their health objective and design scope successively and their theoretical assumptions, measures and findings were analyzed. Findings Four main workplace design strategies were identified. Design for comfort aims at reducing or preventing health complaints, discomfort and stress, following a pathogenic approach. It has the longest tradition and is the most frequently addressed in the included papers. The other three take a salutogenic approach, promoting health by increasing resources for coping with demands through positive design. Design for restoration supports physical and mental recovery through connections with nature. Design for social well-being facilitates social cohesion and feelings of belonging. Design for healthy behavior aims at nudging physical activity in the workplace. Originality/value By drawing complementary perspectives and offering examples of design solutions and effectiveness measures, this paper encourages workplace designers, managers and researchers to take a transdisciplinary and evidence-based approach to healthy workplaces. It also serves as a starting point for future empirical research.

Augmenting Access & Mobility: Designing for the Prosthetic Human

<p>With the needs of the disabled person at the forefront of research and design, this thesis questions how the ‘Prosthetic Human’ can be an architectural catalyst to augment access and mobility. Access and Mobility is identified as an underdeveloped field of architectural enquiry. To improve how disabled individuals experience space, this thesis investigates and tests access and mobility through the lens of design. This thesis extends to the notion of access and networks as defined by Jeremy Rifkin through an architectural exploration into innovation centres. Workplace design strategies directs the design process to formulate stimulating environments that facilitate creative and reflective thought. The theoretical frameworks of Marquard Smith and Joanne Mora, Elizabeth Wright and Mark Wigley, concerning post-human conditions are critically discussed and theoretical notions are transposed into design investigations that explore the building as a prosthetic entity. Specifically, this thesis introduces the disabled body – The Prosthetic Human – as a new figurative referent and proportional system in the design of architecture. Corbusian principles and methods are examined and appropriated for the Prosthetic Human. The proportions of the Prosthetic Human informs the architecture at macro, messo, and micro scales. This research finds that by designing for the Prosthetic Human, the architecture is, holistically representative of a body that requires enhanced access and mobility within space. The research is purposeful; the process celebrates difference and in turn, a calm and embracing architecture is presented in hope for those impaired to be free from spatial discrimination in our environment.</p>

Augmenting Access & Mobility: Designing for the Prosthetic Human

<p>With the needs of the disabled person at the forefront of research and design, this thesis questions how the ‘Prosthetic Human’ can be an architectural catalyst to augment access and mobility. Access and Mobility is identified as an underdeveloped field of architectural enquiry. To improve how disabled individuals experience space, this thesis investigates and tests access and mobility through the lens of design. This thesis extends to the notion of access and networks as defined by Jeremy Rifkin through an architectural exploration into innovation centres. Workplace design strategies directs the design process to formulate stimulating environments that facilitate creative and reflective thought. The theoretical frameworks of Marquard Smith and Joanne Mora, Elizabeth Wright and Mark Wigley, concerning post-human conditions are critically discussed and theoretical notions are transposed into design investigations that explore the building as a prosthetic entity. Specifically, this thesis introduces the disabled body – The Prosthetic Human – as a new figurative referent and proportional system in the design of architecture. Corbusian principles and methods are examined and appropriated for the Prosthetic Human. The proportions of the Prosthetic Human informs the architecture at macro, messo, and micro scales. This research finds that by designing for the Prosthetic Human, the architecture is, holistically representative of a body that requires enhanced access and mobility within space. The research is purposeful; the process celebrates difference and in turn, a calm and embracing architecture is presented in hope for those impaired to be free from spatial discrimination in our environment.</p>

Assessing Employee Engagement in a Post-COVID-19 Workplace Ecosystem

This article has aimed to better understand employee engagement in a post-COVID-19 workplace ecosystem. We identified a knowledge gap in the relationship between employee engagement and the physical workplace environment through an interdisciplinary literature review. We subsequently tested this gap by comparing employee engagement metrics proposed by leading academics in the field of organisational psychology with a sample of commonly used real estate industry approaches to monitoring workplace design/management. We focused specifically on industry-projected post-COVID-19 workplace ecosystem scenarios, and the results suggest that traditional employee engagement metrics and industry approaches to monitoring workplace design and management do not fully reflect the recent shift to hybrid work patterns. We shed light on the implications that this can have on our existing knowledge of “sustainable” property markets in a wider city context.

Framing Future of Work Considerations through Climate and Built Environment Assessment of Volunteer Work Practices in the United States Equine Assisted Services

The foundation of healthy workplace design is an understanding of work practices. Volunteers comprise the majority of the workforce in care centers using horses to address human health issues. Documentation is lacking on protections for worker well-being in equestrian microenvironments which are known to have the potential for dust exposures. Climate acts as a master variable in equestrian facility design and ventilation usage to address dust and temperature concerns. Using climate as an independent variable, our objective was to characterize space usage, safety, environmental control, and organizational practices through a national survey of equine assisted programs. We found that more fully enclosed indoor arena spaces were in cold/very cold and mixed-humid climates (p = 0.0114). Annually more volunteers (p = 0.0073) work in these two climate groups averaging 100 volunteers per location. A total of 34% of all facilities, regardless of climate, do not use mechanical ventilation systems (e.g., fans). As volunteer worker time in the arena increased, time in the barn microenvironment tended to decrease (p = 0.0538). We identified facility designs, ventilation usage, and worker arrangements to refine the scalability of future air contaminant monitoring and to provide frameworks for education, workplace design, and prevention of exposure to dust.