Abstract
Exposure to environmental stressors has physical and psychological consequences. A demanding physical environment involves the allocation of additional attentional resources and an increase in psycho-physical stress. This study illustrates the process of a research-intervention aimed at designing a workplace, using a participatory design approach, and considering the beneficial effect of restorative environments in reducing stressful elements and improving well-being at work. Stressful situations occur daily, compromising proper functioning while causing the occurrence of physiological and/or psychological disorders. To be able to safeguard their psycho-physical well-being, people normally adopt coping strategies, i.e., remedies that allow them to cope and manage situations that generate stress. One of these strategies is the exposure to natural environments, which promotes recovery and sustains psycho-physical well-being. The restorative properties of natural environments have been scientifically proven. However, even built spaces can be thought of as restorative environments, in particular when certain conditions are granted. An applied science, known as biophilic design, provides useful indications from this perspective. This project involved 57 employees of the Italian site of an international non-governmental organization, in the transition from a site no longer adequate to a new site requiring renovation. In a first phase, a survey was conducted, to verify the perceived quality of the current workplace and to detect the unmet workers' needs, and to assess some other important psychological constructs connected with perception of restorativeness and well-being. In a second phase, the findings emerged from the survey was analyzed in depth through a participatory interior design process, together with an interdisciplinary team of architects, technicians of the organization and environmental psychology researchers. The team, together with some representatives of employees, worked together through possible scenarios, adopting a biophilic design approach, to design the new workplace. At the end, the same survey of the first phase was conducted, to detect differences in perceived quality in the new workplace compared to the previous one.
Highlights
Workplace in an Historical PerspectiveThe nature of the workplace in the modern world has transformed drastically after World War II
“None of us is as smart as all of us together,” when small groups worked on the design of the formal and informal common spaces using the plants of the new site, most of the participants underlined the need of features of places recalling natural environments
We are going to describe them looking at the two moments of the assessment, the first referring to the old site, and the second referring to the new one, which has been design after the participatory design process, looking at the possible aspects, such as the restorative qualities of the environment, light, acoustic, air, as well as the presence of views of nature and the visual contact with natural elements, and the presence of biomorphic forms and structures
Summary
Workplace in an Historical PerspectiveThe nature of the workplace in the modern world has transformed drastically after World War II. The focus of the building design was to maximize natural lighting, integrate organic art and install water features to enhance worker productivity and create a new image for the bank. Absenteeism decreased by 15% and employees reportedly looked forward to coming to work and voluntarily tended to the planted vegetation features in the building (Romm and Browning, 1994). The physical workplace can either amplify or dampen many of the underlying factors of productivity. Research in this sector is very valuable to touch on perspectives, challenges and lessons learned by project teams or owners when improving the workplace
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