What make a truly
comfortable workspace?
Office design and its impact on productivity :
According to research, 65% of office workers
believe that if the style of their office matches their
ideal workplace environment, then their productivity
levels will rise. Research by Dell also found that 73%
of UK office workers would consider leaving their
workplace if it didn’t inspire them to fulfil their role.
1. source:[Link]
good workplace design is about much more than trendy office
furniture, the latest technology, and mood lighting. Indeed, a person-
focused environment that harnesses both functionality and
innovation has the ability to drive employee engagement and create
a stronger company culture.
Functional interior Ergonomic
design plan Furniture
Flexibility & Acoustic (noise
Colors control)
Ergonomy
Lighting Using technology
Thermal comfort
There is a continuous and dynamic interaction between, people and their surroundings that produces
physiological and psychological strain on the person.
This can lead to discomfort, annoyance, subtle and direct affects on performance and productivity,
affects on health and safety, and death.
Discomfort in offices can be due to :
1. glare .
2. noisy equipment .
3. draughts .
4. smells .
In the cold people experience frostbite and die from hypothermia.
In the heat they collapse or die from heat stroke.
People exposed to vibrating tools encompass damage to their hands.
Performance can be dramatically affected by :
1. The loss of manual dexterity in the cold .
2. Noise interfering with speech communication .
3. Work time lost because the environment is unacceptable or distracting.
[Link] can occur due to glare on displays,
5. missed signals in a warm environment or disorientation due to exposure to extreme environment
Parsons, K.C., “Environmental ergonomics: a review of principles, methods and models”, Applied Ergonomics, vol. 31, pp. 581-594, 2000.
Aims of study :
This research aims to analyze the good design of workspace
Objective :
1. Assess office workers' satisfaction with interior arrangement styles.
2. Identify critical factors that enhance office comfort.
3. Understand the role of interior architects in encouraging employee well-being.
Questions :
1- What are the keys that provide comfortable design to the office space ?
2- How an interior architect can participate in employees well-being ?
Limitation of study :
This study is limited to three main aspects that deeply affect the well-being of office
workers.
1- Interior layout
2- color aspect
3- lighting
Hypothesis :
1- There is a direct relationship between good design and well-being
2- Good design can systematically contribute to increasing employee productivity
Research Mixed methodology : Quantitative & Qualitative
Main research problem :
AS a designer, how we can make the office space more
comfortable ?
1- Study of general layout design .
2-Study of lighting (physical and psychologic effects)
3- Color effect (psychologic aspect)
Workplace design
FLEXIBLE OFFICE AND WORK PRACTICES:
One of the most important factors when carrying out a flexible office designs or
redesign project is the awareness that it is a project of changes that primarily
affects staff and organization and only secondarily a building project.
Every office must be created by and for its own staff organization.
Companies that have adopted this working style can
present figures and facts that clearly demonstrate the advantages .
These include:
More satisfied employees, decrease in sick leave time, decrease in staff turnover, up to 47 %
increase in working time availability, increase of net income (33 %) and less costs for office
space (50 %).
Andersson, M., Work Where you Want: Experiences and Economical Consequences by Flexible Work Practices, Canon Svenska AB,
Stockholm, 1997. According to Ergonomics in the Office Environment:A Review Arunesh Chandra, Pankaj Chandna, Surinder Deswal and Rajender Kumar
Workplace design
Principles for good workplace design
Open-plan areas
Open-plan layouts should be set up using these requirements and guides to maximise an
Integrity agency's use of space and their productivity.
Open-plan areas help to optimise
space, but need to be set up well for
staff to work productively. They
need to maximise natural light, and
provide a range of settings so staff
can choose to work in an area that
suits the task they're focused on.
Including various settings
Workplace settings can include, but not be limited to:
collaboration spaces
project spaces
multi-purpose areas
quiet spaces
focus areas
non-bookable meeting rooms
non-bookable enclosed rooms for
extended phone calls or virtual meetings
bookable meeting rooms
workstations.
A 3D plan showing potential work settings
The psychology of colour is based on the mental and emotional effects
colours have on people in all facets of life. There are some very subjective
pieces to colour psychology as well as some more accepted and proven
elements. Colour affects hormonal balance; hormonal balance or
imbalance directly affects our feelings and emotions.
Workspace lighting
What is good workspace lighting, and what do you need to take into
account?
In most workspaces you have to deal with natural daylight.
Increased Productivity: research examined the impact of daylight
exposure on the health of office workers from the perspective of
subjective well-being and sleep quality as well as actigraphy measures of
light exposure, activity, and sleep-wake patterns.
Participants (N = 49) included 27 workers working in windowless
environments and 22 comparable workers in workplaces with significantly
more daylight.
Workers were selected from volunteers within administrative support staff
and other office workers on the campus of the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) whose work schedule was from 08:00 to 17:00.
Articles from Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine : JCSM : Official Publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine are provided here courtesy of
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
✉
Mohamed Boubekri1, , Ivy N Cheung2, Kathryn J Reid2, Chia-Hui Wang1,3, Phyllis C Zee2
Figure 1. Actigraphy measures of light exposure, total activity, and sleep time between workers in workplaces
with windows (N = 11) and without windows (N = 10).
Articles from Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine : JCSM : Official Publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine are provided here courtesy of
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
✉
Mohamed Boubekri1, , Ivy N Cheung2, Kathryn J Reid2, Chia-Hui Wang1,3, Phyllis C Zee2
Impact of Windows and Daylight Exposure on Overall Health
and Sleep Quality of Office Workers: A Case-Control Pilot
Study
Results:
Workers in windowless environments reported poorer scores than
A survey by an HR advisory firm published in the Harvard
their counterparts on two SF-36 dimensions—role limitation due
Business Review shows access to natural light is the
to physical problems and vitality—as well as poorer overall sleep
number one attribute workers want in their office
quality from the global PSQI score and the sleep disturbances
environment.
component of the PSQI. Compared to the group without windows,
workers with windows at the workplace had more light exposure
during the workweek, a trend toward more physical activity, and Better Physical Health:
longer sleep duration as measured by actigraphy. Studies have demonstrated that workers in well-lit
environments take less sick leave and report better
Conclusions: overall health. For example, a study at the
We suggest that architectural design of office environments University of Oregon found that employees with
should place more emphasis on sufficient daylight exposure of good views and natural light took 6.5% less sick
the workers in order to promote office workers' health and well- leave compared to their counterparts
being.
Articles from Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine : JCSM : Official Publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine are provided here courtesy of
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
✉
Mohamed Boubekri1, , Ivy N Cheung2, Kathryn J Reid2, Chia-Hui Wang1,3, Phyllis C Zee2
Psychological processes in lighting-behavior Veitch and Newsham gave half of their participants a
relationships more direct form of lighting control, allowing them to
set the lighting at the start of a day-long session,
Perceived Control
during which participants completed writing,
Among the classic observations in modern psychology proofreading and creative writing tasks. Although the
is the finding that perceived control can moderate stress participants who had chosen the settings had higher
reactions. perceived control than others who had not, there
were no differences in performance
Furthermore, belief that the or satisfaction between the groups.
absence of control leads to feelings of unhappiness and
powerlessness is widespread.
conclusion :
Field surveys given the generally high reported level of satisfaction
are consistent in reporting that a sizable percentage with the work environment and with the lighting
of office employees prefer to have some degree of control specifically, that providing control over the lighting
over their office lighting. 54 % reported had no additional benefit.
this in a large North American survey,1
and 67 % in one Midwestern U.S. building.2
Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society Psychological Processes Influencing Lighting Jennifer A. Veitch Published online: 16 Sep 2013.
Quality
Uniformity across tasks
Robert Baron, a social and environmental psychologist,
One extension of the attention hypothesis is the notion that
is the best-known proponent of the theory that environmental
task lighting can focus attention on desk work, thereby
conditions that create a state of positive affect
improving task performance.
lead to better performance, greater effort, less conflict
There is little effect of desktop uniformity on visual
performance. and greater willingness to help others.
Other investigations found no effect of uniformity on task The theory is supported by empirical results using fragrances
performance: to elicit positive affect.
Illuminance level differences on the desk, associated with A similar study using illuminance levels
varying the and fluorescent lamp types to create various lighting
light distribution in an office, did not affect (paperbased) conditions
clerical task performance in a comparison of 10 found that positive affect was a likely explanation
different general and local/general combined lighting for performance and cooperation effects, although it was
installations. not the only mechanism that could explain the results.
Nor did varying task document brightness Affect theory has intuitive appeal. For example, people
for participants typing text into a VDT influence typing prefer daylight over electric light where it is available and
performance. Slater, Perry, and Carter varied the illuminance believe it is conducive to improved work.' ' '' Empirical
ratio across an open office with two desks demonstrations in support of this theory require, first, the
between 0.29 (very nonuniform) and 0.98 (very uniform) demonstration certain luminous conditions are preferred;
, but found no effect on a paper-based clerical coding and second, that preferred conditions lead to
task. desired behavioral outcomes such as better task.
ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING
Light output
The right light output at your workplace at home or in the office is very important. But what
do we mean by that? Light output is the total quantity of light emitted in a room and is
expressed in LUX. For a workplace, a minimum illuminance of 500 LUX is recommended.
Sufficient light
Sufficient (natural) light in your workplace is very important.
With basic lighting, such as a ceiling lamp or LED lighting, you immediately light up the whole room.
You can also choose indirect lighting, where a lamp on the ceiling directs the light upwards.
This ensures minimal reflection on your screen, but is not sufficient for concentrated working or reading.
For this you need functional lighting, such as a desk lamp or floor lamp, which you can direct exactly
where you need the light.
The color temperature
The color temperature of a lamp also plays an important role in choosing the right lighting for your
workplace. The color of the light has a major influence on your performance and productivity. Bright, white
light ensures you can concentrate better and you become tired less quickly.
A color temperature of at least 4000 Kelvin (K) is recommended for workplaces. This ensures that you remain
alert and focused.
[Link]/blog/workspace-lighting/ August 2022
Key word :
1. Productivity
2. Performance
3. Flexibility
4. Workspace
5. Open-Plans
[Link]
[Link] lighting
[Link] lighting
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References :
[Link]://[Link]/workplace-design/principles-for-good-workplace-design/ New Zealand 2024
2. Equipment Design - Specialization in Urban and Interior Design, University of Lisbon, Faculty of Fine Arts, 2018
Author : Papierska, Alicja
3. Ergonomics in the Office Environment: A ReviewArunesh Chandra, Pankaj Chandna, Surinder
Deswal and Rajender Kumar - MARCH 19-21, 2009
4. source:[Link]
5. [Link] March 2020/
6. [Link]/blog/workspace-lighting/ August 2022
[Link] from Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine : JCSM : Official Publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine are provided here
✉
courtesy of American Academy of Sleep Medicine Mohamed Boubekri1, , Ivy N Cheung2, Kathryn J Reid2, Chia-Hui Wang1,3, Phyllis C Zee2
8. Journal of the Illuminating Engineering SocietyPsychological Processes Influencing Lighting Jennifer A. Veitch Published online: 16 Sep 2013.
Quality
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