Healthy Offices: Conceptualizing Healthy Activity-based Offices
Doctoral thesis, 2022
This thesis explores the interrelations between the design characteristics of activity-based offices, users’ perceptions of them, and users’ sense of coherence. The goal is twofold: (i) contribute to conceptualizations of healthy activity-based offices and (ii) facilitate practical use of the sense of coherence theory for office designers. Most research into healthy offices has focused on harm-causing factors (pathogenic aspects) while overlooking the health-promoting design characteristics in activity-based offices (salutogenic aspects). This thesis is a response to the call for a paradigm shift and explores the particular design characteristics of activity-based offices that promote health, drawing on the salutogenic approach and sense of coherence theory.
The thesis builds on a literature review and two mixed methods case studies on activity-based offices. Drawing on the sense of coherence framework, three types of design characteristics were identified: (i) those that promote a clear understanding of office environments, (ii) those that enhance users' access to relevant resources, and (iii) those that evoke meaning for users to cope with stressors. These characteristics and the perceptions of them are interrelated meaning that they can have multiple impacts on users’ sense of coherence. The findings also highlighted temporal changes in users’ perceptions, indicating that novelties of the new office wore off and the initial problems observed in the office environment worsened. Moreover, activity-based offices were not always perceived as intended because of suboptimal design solutions and contextual factors.
In conclusion, there are no definitive answers to how to design healthy activity-based offices. Activity-based offices are complex environments and consist of many interacting aspects including the design characteristics, individuals’, and their work-related prerequisite as well as organization-related factors that influence users’ perceptions and their sense of coherence. The framework developed in this thesis may contribute to better-informed discussions about designing for sense of coherence.
The thesis suggests that healthy activity-based offices should be viewed as a "moving project" that develops over time through experimentation and adaptation, with management’s involvement. Thus, a healthy activity-based office provides users resources and opportunities to codesign an environment that enables them (i) build meaningful social relationships, (ii) manage visual and acoustic distractions, (iii) read and understand workspaces, and (iv) receive support from management in their daily work.
The thesis builds on a literature review and two mixed methods case studies on activity-based offices. Drawing on the sense of coherence framework, three types of design characteristics were identified: (i) those that promote a clear understanding of office environments, (ii) those that enhance users' access to relevant resources, and (iii) those that evoke meaning for users to cope with stressors. These characteristics and the perceptions of them are interrelated meaning that they can have multiple impacts on users’ sense of coherence. The findings also highlighted temporal changes in users’ perceptions, indicating that novelties of the new office wore off and the initial problems observed in the office environment worsened. Moreover, activity-based offices were not always perceived as intended because of suboptimal design solutions and contextual factors.
In conclusion, there are no definitive answers to how to design healthy activity-based offices. Activity-based offices are complex environments and consist of many interacting aspects including the design characteristics, individuals’, and their work-related prerequisite as well as organization-related factors that influence users’ perceptions and their sense of coherence. The framework developed in this thesis may contribute to better-informed discussions about designing for sense of coherence.
The thesis suggests that healthy activity-based offices should be viewed as a "moving project" that develops over time through experimentation and adaptation, with management’s involvement. Thus, a healthy activity-based office provides users resources and opportunities to codesign an environment that enables them (i) build meaningful social relationships, (ii) manage visual and acoustic distractions, (iii) read and understand workspaces, and (iv) receive support from management in their daily work.
Salutogenic
Workplace
Office design
Case study
Activity-based office
Sense of coherence
Health
Well-being
EE Lecture hall, Hörsalsvägen 11, Staircase C, Floor 6
Opponent: Associate Professor Theo van der Voordt, TU Delft, The Netherlands
Author
Melina Forooraghi
Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Building Technology
A healthy office and healthy employees: a longitudinal case study with a salutogenic perspective in the context of the physical office environment
Building Research and Information,;Vol. 50(2022)p. 134-151
Journal article
How Does Office Design Support Employees’ Health? A Case Study on the Relationships among Employees’ Perceptions of the Office Environment, Their Sense of Coherence and Office Design
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,;Vol. 23(2021)
Journal article
Scoping review of health in office design approaches
Journal of Corporate Real Estate,;Vol. 22(2020)p. 155-180
Review article
'Health in the river of life' was an analogy that Antonovsky, a medical sociologist, used to suggest that people must not only build bridges to avoid falling into the river, but also learn how to swim. What if activity-based offices focused on enabling ‘swimming in the river’?
Activity-based offices provide a variety of shared workspaces to support different activities, such as spaces for concentrated individual work, creative work, or communicative work with others. The two main types of activity-based offices are the ‘Activity-based Flexible Office’ (AFO) and ‘combi office’, with the distinction that users in combi offices have assigned desks, while users in AFOs share desks. While we know that poor air quality, humidity, and poor lighting in office buildings can make us sick, we do not know much about the health-promoting design characteristics in offices. This thesis uses three studies to explore the design characteristics of activity-based offices that promote health.
The findings show that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to designing healthy, activity-based offices. Organizations and their needs change, and so do their spatial requirements. To respond to these changes, office design should be viewed as a ‘moving project’ that evolves over time through experimentation and adaptation. Healthy activity-based offices, therefore, enable ‘swimming in the river’ by providing users resources and opportunities to codesign an environment that enables them (i) build meaningful social relationships, (ii) manage visual and acoustic distractions, (iii) read and understand workspaces, and (iv) receive support from management in their daily work.
Activity-based offices provide a variety of shared workspaces to support different activities, such as spaces for concentrated individual work, creative work, or communicative work with others. The two main types of activity-based offices are the ‘Activity-based Flexible Office’ (AFO) and ‘combi office’, with the distinction that users in combi offices have assigned desks, while users in AFOs share desks. While we know that poor air quality, humidity, and poor lighting in office buildings can make us sick, we do not know much about the health-promoting design characteristics in offices. This thesis uses three studies to explore the design characteristics of activity-based offices that promote health.
The findings show that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to designing healthy, activity-based offices. Organizations and their needs change, and so do their spatial requirements. To respond to these changes, office design should be viewed as a ‘moving project’ that evolves over time through experimentation and adaptation. Healthy activity-based offices, therefore, enable ‘swimming in the river’ by providing users resources and opportunities to codesign an environment that enables them (i) build meaningful social relationships, (ii) manage visual and acoustic distractions, (iii) read and understand workspaces, and (iv) receive support from management in their daily work.
Subject Categories
Design
Architecture
Environmental Health and Occupational Health
Areas of Advance
Building Futures (2010-2018)
Health Engineering
ISBN
978-91-7905-694-0
Doktorsavhandlingar vid Chalmers tekniska högskola. Ny serie: 5160
Publisher
Chalmers
EE Lecture hall, Hörsalsvägen 11, Staircase C, Floor 6
Opponent: Associate Professor Theo van der Voordt, TU Delft, The Netherlands