ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN INTERIOR DESIGN

The workplace plays an important role in our lives. If we spend most of our days in one environment, it affects mood, cognitive behaviour and wellbeing.

The rising body of research points out that most modern office layouts do not reflect the well-being of employees. Several hours are wasted each year due to poor office layout.

Understanding the relationship between how we think and the world in which we spend most of our time is creating a new wave of creative office designs. Thanks to a better understanding of how office environments can have an impact on the health and well-being of the people who use them, interior designers have repositioned their focus to make workspace layouts more human-centric.

The most popular projects in the workplace incorporate private and public characteristics, natural features and spatial expectations for different types of character. In addition, modern office layouts were designed to enhance well-being and efficiency.

SOUND-PROOFING WORKSPACE

The number one concern from office workers around the globe is the amount of noise around the workplace. This was the case for people who worked in private offices as well as the open plan.

Weak acoustics in the office environment was blamed for lack of concentration, lower job satisfaction, higher stress rates and lower productivity.

The report released by the maker of office furniture, Steelcase, states that the average worker is interrupted every three minutes. What’s more, it may take a person twenty-three minutes to regain full concentration when they lose focus.

NATURE’S TOUCH

It is well known that nature has regenerative qualities. Man’s relation to the natural world recharges the immune system and promotes well-being in a variety of ways.

Numerous studies show employees working in office environments that receive a lot of sunshine or include natural elements in the design report improved moods, higher job satisfaction levels and more loyalty to their employers.

BREATHABILITY

Unpredictable weather and polluted cities will not improve. If buildings are closed to keep the heat out, carbon dioxide levels rise and lead to somnolence and nausea, when the windows open the exhaust fume particles migrate into the workplace.

While the physical renovation of your office building may not be the most practical solution from a financial point of view, incorporating environmental controls into an office layout will improve the flow of better air.

The installation of fully integrated heating and cooling systems with high-grade cleaning filters will also benefit. These systems link to a network of self-calibrating sensors that provide real-time data to detect damaging levels of toxicity and air-quality.

CREATING MORE SPACE

Studies aimed at exposing the psychological aspects of the architecture of the workplace in relation to the effect on spatial awareness have provided new perspectives for interior designers. The study identified two key areas in which specific spatial characteristics and environmental qualities have a psychological impact on workers in a crowded workplace; social and spatial size.

It is assumed that spatial density has a greater influence on our understanding of personal space. Studies have shown that performance levels decrease when employees work in cramped, closed or shared space. Office models over the last sixty years have failed to address the psychological effects of how space is used in the workplace.

As cubicles were introduced into the office environment in the 1960s, they were seen as innovative and offered workers a private space. Cubicles were seen as an oddly empowering shift away from the chaos of open floor plans that left staff feeling frustrated, depressed, and less productive.

The new designs often respond to different personal needs by creating social spaces for extroverts and private niches for introverts. Such designated areas also play a role in allowing workers to focus on the work they do. A team environment can be motivating for typical everyday activities that are perceived to be tedious, whereas private offices are suitable for working on brain-draining documents and creative projects.

On the contrary, today’s workforce simply wants an office space that is usable and helps them to do their job to the best of their abilities. Nevertheless, the in-house bar to crash at the end of the day is not often missed. Knowing the hierarchy of different types of auditory, visual and spatial input helps designers to identify the key features of interior office layout.

Now that we know more about the physical and psychological state of today’s workers, we can concentrate on developing offices that meet people’s health and well-being needs – because people do their best when they’re in good health.