Relationship between sound environments and worker's impression evaluation in open-plan offices Part 1: Development of the survey system and summary of the survey results

Abstract

In recent years, the adaption of open-plan offices is increasing as they effectively improve intellectual productivity by fostering communication among workers. Many previous studies have clarified the relationship between a sound environment and intellectual productivity by having subjects work in constrained spaces such as meeting rooms or laboratories. However, little research has been conducted on the effects of a sound environment in office spaces where multiple workers actually work. In an open-plan office, the goal of this study is to clarify the relationship between a sound environment and a worker's impression evaluation. The purpose of this paper is to introduce our originally developed real-time sound environment measurement system and to describe the results of a measured survey conducted in an actual open-plan office.