Chalmers University of Technology
Activity-based offices are becoming increasingly common but also make a form of work that is more challenging for users. Research from Chalmers show that resources like noise-cancelling headphones and absorbent materials can create well-being, but above all highlights the importance of letting the concept of healthy activity-based offices develop over time, and in dialogue with users.
Melina Forooraghi, Doctor at the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, has explored factors that make us feel well in an activity-based office environment and how design characteristics can help the user to stay healthy. Her findings highlight the importance of enabling coping with stressors in the office environment by providing a wide range of solutions - from noise-cancelling headphones to divider screens, noise absorbent materials and quiet rooms.
- A healthy activity-based office provides users with access to the resources they need to function and feel well, and is designed so that users understand how they can use and benefit from different types of workspaces, says Melina Forooraghi.
The users need resources to handle both disturbing sounds and visual impressions and means to function socially with colleagues and receive support from managers in the daily work. She emphasizes that it is of great importance to be able to see the activity-based office as moving projects that can continue to develop over time by testing different solutions and working with adaptation and remodeling.
- The management need to be in constant dialogue with the users. The fact that the construction work is finished is not synonymous with the office environment being finished to the extent that it doesn't require more attention, says Melina.
Designing for everyone is designing for no one
In her research, Melina has focused on factors that can create health rather than factors that cause ill health, but she can clearly see what should be avoided: standardized design solutions. Relocations to activity-based offices are often linked to organizational mergers where people from different backgrounds, disciplines and with different tasks are brought together to work in the same space. Organizations often fail to include employee perspectives in the process, which in turn results in more generic office design that must respond to a variety of needs and differences.
- Standardized and generic design solutions are a lost opportunity because designing for everyone is the same as designing for no one. If you keep your design at a very generic level, it means it doesn't really serve anyone, says Melina.
The office environment of the future
The trend in office real estate is towards more activity-based offices where users share workspaces. After the pandemic, more and more organizations have adopted hybrid work, which can also lead to increased acceptance of desk sharing as many spend less time in the office. In the longer term, Melina sees further trends:
- I believe that much of the work we do today will be automated in the future, which requires us to develop our uniquely human abilities such as design, imagination, critical thinking and innovation. The office environment will be a catalyst for these skills and constitute an environment that promotes these types of activities, concludes Melina.
Melina Forooraghi recently defended her doctoral thesis: Healthy Offices: Conceptualizing Healthy Activity-based Offices
Text: Catharina Björk
/University Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) might be of the point-in-time nature, and edited for clarity, style and length. Mirage.News does not take institutional positions or sides, and all views, positions, and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s).View in full here.
