Relationship between the design characteristics of activity-based flexible offices and users’ perceptions of privacy and social interactions
Journal article, 2023

Activity-based flexible offices (AFOs) provide a variety of workspaces to meet the need for social interactions and privacy at work. This study investigates the relationship between the design characteristics of AFOs and users’ perceptions of visual and acoustic privacy and social interactions. This case study is based on post-occupancy evaluations in three AFO layouts at a public service organization in Sweden. A mixed-method approach is adopted that combines questionnaires and layout analysis. In general, the results showed that while aesthetics received the highest satisfaction scores, office functionality, task support, storage and visual and acoustic privacy received the lowest ratings. Key design characteristics for AFOs were operationalized, observed and exemplified: zone diversity, proportion, readability, spatial enclosure, sharing ratios and functionality of furniture and tools. These insights may contribute to better-informed decisions about the design characteristics that influence privacy and social interactions in AFOs.

work environment

Activity-based working

post-occupancy evaluation

layout analysis

case study

office design

Author

Melina Forooraghi

Region Västra Götaland

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Building Technology

Elke Miedema

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Architectural theory and methods

Nina Ryd

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Building Design

Holger Wallbaum

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Building Technology

Maral Babapour Chafi

Region Västra Götaland

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Design and Human Factors

Building Research and Information

0961-3218 (ISSN) 1466-4321 (eISSN)

Vol. 51 5 588-604

Subject Categories

Media and Communication Technology

Interaction Technologies

Human Computer Interaction

DOI

10.1080/09613218.2023.2180343

More information

Latest update

3/7/2024 9