Modern Office Research Articles

Sensitivity analysis of indoor air distribution performances in an office room with ceiling cooling and mechanical ventilation

A hybrid system with a ceiling cooling (CC) system and a mechanical ventilation system has been extensively applied in modern office buildings with large sensible cooling loads. Both the chilled ceiling and supply air may greatly influence indoor air distribution in the office room. Therefore in this paper, indoor air distribution performances in a ceiling cooling room with underfloor air distribution (UFAD) or mixing ventilation (MV) were sensitively analyzed by numerical simulation. Indoor air distribution performances, which were evaluated by the heat removal effectiveness, contamination removal effectiveness and air diffusion performance index, were quantitatively analyzed by using the orthogonal experiment method. The results showed that when the supply air temperature was 18 °C-24 °C for CC + UFAD and 16 °C-21 °C for CC + MV, the heat removal effectiveness changed by 0.01 with 1 °C increment of supply air temperature or ceiling surface temperature, and the contamination removal effectiveness increased by 0.001-0.002 with 1 W/m2 increment of external sensible cooling load. Moreover, the air diffusion performance index increased by 0.6%-1.1% with 1 °C increment of supply air temperature, and it decreased by 0.02% with 1 W/m2 increment of internal sensible cooling load. Finally, formulas of heat removal effectiveness, contamination removal effectiveness and air diffusion performance index for CC + UFAD and CC + MV were obtained by fitting, and they may provide guidance for the optimal design and control of a hybrid system with a ceiling cooling system and a mechanical ventilation system.

‘Interconnected Groups’: Alvar Aalto’s Competition for the Pohjola Office Building, Helsinki, 1964-65

This article analyses the Alvar Aalto office’s competition entry for the Pohjola Office Building, Helsinki (2nd prize, 1964-65, unbuilt), named Maiandros. Aalto described the unique plan for this office building – with connected towers placed on a podium in a park, and a hybrid cellular/open-plan organization – as a plan of ‘interconnected groups’. The architectural critic Malcolm Quantrill discussed what remains one of Aalto’s least-known designs within the scope of what he called Aalto’s “modular works”. How and with what objectives did Aalto use the module in Maiandros? Is the project relevant to architectural theory and practice today? Based on a close study of the archival sources in the Alvar Aalto Museum, the current article tests Quantrill’s hypotheses, adapting them in terms of modular composition, modular construction and a modular environment. Thus, Maiandros is considered within the contexts of: 1) Aalto’s office building designs; 2) the changes going on at that time in Finnish architecture (through a comparison with the winning proposal); 3) the development of the modern office building (using as a reference, Reyner Banham’s 1969 book The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment).

Thermal response of a curtain wall framing system under fire conditions

Curtain walls are the most common façade system for modern office buildings. These facade systems play an important role in containing the fire to the floor of origin, and in the case of failure, the consequences can be severe. The heat from a fire could cause key elements to fail and sections of the facade to detach and fall from the building, facilitating flame spread to upper floors. However, no tools currently exist that can reliably predict the failure of such systems. This study computationally investigates the thermal response of two curtain wall framing systems to fire exposure – the stick system and the unitized system. The model predictions were validated against experimental data and the role of the screw connector is explored. A typical curtain wall aluminium frame system is modelled. The simulation results indicate that when heated from a compartment fire, thermal degradation of the aluminium frame is very rapid, occurring within the first 15 min of fire exposure for ISO-834 standard fire. When heated from the outside, considering the Eurocode external fire, thermal degradation of the pressure plate occurred within 10 min. With the addition of thermal protection or when using steel instead of aluminium profiles, thermal degradation was not predicted within the first 40 min of heating. The findings advance our understanding of curtain wall frame fire behaviour and can help develop more effective fire strategies and more resilient systems.

Analysis of Operational Energy between Adaptive Reuse Historic Buildings (ARHB) and Modern Office Buildings: A Case Study in Sri Lanka

Adaptive Reuse of Historic Buildings (ARHB) is a new concept in developing countries like Sri Lanka. One of the main concerns for the intendancy of decision makers to ARHB is the operational energy. This paper analyzes the research gap of reusing historical buildings as office spaces by utilizing their structural and architectural designs and preserving the buildings’ authenticity for the future. It further aims to protect energy-efficient historical buildings from getting demolished and replaced with new modern buildings. A set of operational energy variables of modern office buildings and the potential historic buildings that can be reused as office spaces was established. During the early 1990s, old Dutch-era buildings in the country were mainly used as government office buildings. Three Dutch-era buildings in Galle Fort and three modern buildings in Colombo City have been selected as the case studies. Design-Builder (DB) software was used to comprehensively analyze sets of operational energy consumption variables. Selected historic buildings in Galle consumed 143.74 kWh/m2, 156.34 kWh/m2, and 209.39 kWh/m2 while modern buildings consumed 337.29 kWh/m2, 210.99 kWh/m2, and 382.57 kWh/m2 as operational energy, respectively. According to the analysis, the operational energy requirement of ARHB is comparatively lesser than that of modern buildings. This study, therefore, mainly concludes that the historical buildings saved more operational energy than the modern building envelopes while considerably reducing environmental impacts and saving the building energy cost.

Unworking: The Reinvention of the Modern Office

Journal Article Unworking: The Reinvention of the Modern Office Get access Unworking: The Reinvention of the Modern Office Jeremy Myerson and Philip Ross, University of Chicago Press, 2022, 240pp., 35 b&w illus., cloth,$22.50, ISBN: 978-1-78914-668-4. Amy Thomas Amy Thomas Assistant Professor of Architectural History Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Delft, the Netherlands Email: a.r.thomas@tudelft.nl Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Design History, epad031, https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epad031 Published: 20 June 2023

Labor market changes and social inclusiveness across regions: evidence from the rise of the modern office

Could complex changes in the labor market reduce social inequalities across regions? We study the rise of office employment in the early twentieth century that was induced by innovations in office technology and organizational changes affecting the type of required office tasks. The new office jobs required little physical strength. We find that the regional employment share of industries that were strongly connected to the modern office, is positively linked to labor force participation of people with physical impairments. The positive employment effect is more visible for disabled men. In sum, the rise of the modern office that differed across regions started to lower labor market entry barriers and fostered social inclusiveness.

External shading and its effect on the energy efficiency of Tehran's office buildings

AbstractModern office building designers tend to propose highly glazed façades that provide occupants with a view and daylight; however, the use of such façades has consequences, like glare and high energy consumption, especially in warm climates. Shadings affect energy usage for cooling, heating, and artificial lighting, defined as the objectives and output in the optimizer algorithm. The input variables are shading type, WWR, the depth of the shading, the distance between the shading and the window, the distance between fins, the number of fins in shading, and the distance from the top of the window. This research aims to comprehensively study external shadings and window‐to‐wall ratios to reduce the high energy consumption in modern office buildings in Tehran and cities in locations with a similar climate. The results can benefit all scientists researching building science, architects, instructors, and those wanting to buy a low‐energy consumption office. Energy consumption was calculated in Ladybug–Honeybee; the best objectives were obtained for each shading with the optimization process by the Octopus plugin in Grasshopper. Results were analyzed and rated compared with a window without shading. The best scenario was obtained for Egg‐crate with a 14.86% reduction in cooling energy and a 20.04% increase in useful daylight illuminance.

A Case for Social Workers as Investigators in Public Defender Offices.

Social workers play a critical role in modern public defender offices, whether performing mitigation work for pretrial negotiations and sentencing hearings or helping clients to secure access to basic human needs. Although social workers have held in-house positions in public defender offices since at least the 1970s, their service is largely limited to mitigation practice and traditional social work. This article raises an opportunity for social workers to broaden their capacity within public defense by pursuing investigator positions. A case is made for interested social workers to draw upon their education, training, and experience to showcase the alignment between their talents and the requisite skills and performance required of investigative work. Evidence is offered to support the notion that social workers bring skills and a social justice orientation to investigative work that can provide for fresh insight and innovation in investigation and defense strategy. The value brought to investigation by social workers throughout a legal defense is specified, as are considerations for applying and interviewing for investigator positions as social workers.

Commercial architecture of a British trading firm in the Far East, 1830s-1930s: building of Jardine Matheson & Co. offices and warehouses

ABSTRACT This paper’s exploration of the architecture of Jardine Matheson & Co. a British mercantile firm in nineteenth century China and Japan, contributes to the socio-spatial examination of western-style architecture in East Asia from the cross-national perspective. Based on an archival survey of the Jardine Matheson Archive and several contemporary sources, the architectural activities of this British colonial merchant that constructed its branches throughout nineteenth-century East Asia are examined with regard to the following points. First, making use of directories published in the nineteenth century, the opening and closure of their branches are summarized throughout East Asia. Second, the spatial composition and historical background of early buildings in Canton and Hong Kong are clarified. Third, with regard to the several branches established in the mid- to late nineteenth century, their historical backgrounds are clarified. Fourth, spatial compositions of several branch buildings are examined making use of architectural plans and pictures. Fifth, the development of modern office building in the early twentieth century is clarified. Finally, summarizing the above examination, the paper shows the changes in branch buildings related to their business model, and places their architecture in the merchant’s commercial network and the British colonial world in nineteenth century East Asia.

Indoor environmental quality in offices and risk of health and productivity complaints at work: A literature review

Many service jobs are carried out in modern offices, with individual offices being increasingly replaced by open-plan settings. The high number of adult people working in office buildings, in most situations sharing the workplace with many others during a considerable part of their daily time, highlights the importance of providing adequate guidance to ensure the quality of office environments. This paper aims to summarize existing data on modern offices' indoor environmental quality (IEQ) conditions in terms of air pollution (volatile organic compounds (VOC), particulate matter and inorganic pollutants), thermal comfort, lighting and acoustics and the respective associations with health and productivity-related outcomes in workers. Evidence shows that although many offices present acceptable IEQ, some office settings can have levels of air pollutants, hygrothermal conditions/thermal comfort and illuminance that do not comply with the existing international standards and recommendations. In addition, findings suggest the existence of significant associations between the assessed IEQ indicators and the risk of detrimental effects on health and productivity of office workers. In particular, airborne particles, CO2, O3 and thermal comfort were linked with the prevalence of sick building syndrome symptoms. Poor lighting and acoustical quality have also been associated with malaise and physiological stress among office workers. Similarly, better productivity levels have been registered for good indoor air quality conditions, in terms of VOC, airborne particles and CO2. Overall, the evidence revised in this work suggests that for promoting health and productivity recommendations for office building managers include actions to ensure that: i) all relevant IEQ indicators are periodically controlled to ensure that levels comply with recommended limit values; ii) declared indoor pollution sources are avoided; iii) adequate ventilation and acclimatization strategies are implemented; and iv) there is the possibility of conduct personalized adjustments to environmental conditions (following workers' preferences).

Occupant’s thermal responses to asymmetric radiant thermal environment with warm wall and cool ceiling, Part A: Overall thermal responses

A radiant ceiling cooling (CC) system integrated with a mechanical ventilation system, which can improve human thermal comfort and reduce HVAC system energy consumption simultaneously, has been extensively applied in the modern office building with glass curtain walls. In a ceiling cooling room with a glass curtain wall, the horizontal and vertical asymmetric radiation caused by the warm wall and cool ceiling may result in different thermal responses of human body. Therefore in this paper, occupant’s thermal responses in a simulated ceiling cooling office room with mixing ventilation (MV) or underfloor air distribution (UFAD) were investigated by a combination of subjective and objective experiments. Indoor operative temperature was increased from 23.0 °C to 30.0 °C as the surface temperatures of warm wall and cool ceiling were from 30.0 °C to 40.0 °C and from 14.0 °C to 27.0 °C. The results showed that the indoor thermal environment with CC + MV or CC + UFAD was comfortable and acceptable as the indoor operative temperature was from 25.0 °C to 27.0 °C. The thermal neutral operative temperature in the room was 25.6 °C with CC + MV and 26.4 °C with CC + UFAD, and the corresponding thermal neutral skin temperatures was 33.4 °C and 33.7 °C, respectively. Moreover, the thermal comfort stability of indoor operative temperature was close to 0.30 °C−1 with CC + MV or CC + UFAD, and the corresponding thermal comfort stability of mean skin temperature was 0.90 °C−1–0.94 °C−1. There were clearly linear relationships between thermal sensation or thermal preference and indoor operative temperature or mean skin temperature, and these relationships may be beneficial for the intelligent control of a radiant ceiling cooling system combined with a mechanical ventilation system.

Quantifying the effect of flanking sound transmission on sound insulation and speech privacy metrics

In modern commercial office design, sustainable building codes and quality standards often demand certain levels of sound insulation to ensure sufficient speech privacy or freedom from distraction for the occupants. Missing from the minimum requirements of these documents, however, is guidance on eliminating flanking weaknesses that repeatedly and significantly degrade the experienced speech privacy. This paper presents case studies of common acoustical weaknesses found between closed offices and meeting rooms. Through the use of sound intensity measurements and acoustical imagery, the sound power of each weakness is calculated and shown relative to the sound power of the separating partition. By comparing these results to partitions without these weaknesses, the effective reduction in speech privacy is demonstrated using the ASTC, NIC, and SPC metrics. Weaknesses examined and ranked include, open ceiling plenums, lack of or ineffective door seals, door closure pressure, continuous door frames, façade mullions and transoms, interior windows and their frames, lack of acoustical sealant, uninterrupted gypsum on side walls, common door frames at the edges of partitions, modular and operable walls and their junctions, continuous heating elements, thin continuous floor toppings, and ventilation duct crosstalk.

A Methodological Framework for Enhancing the Modern Office Spaces and Solving their Problems

A Methodological Framework for Enhancing the Modern Office Spaces and Solving their Problems

Toward kingdom-wide analyses of gene expression.

Gene expression data for Archaeplastida are accumulating exponentially, with more than 300 000 RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) experiments available for hundreds of species. The gene expression data stem from thousands of experiments that capture gene expression in various organs, tissues, cell types, (a)biotic perturbations, and genotypes. Advances in software tools make it possible to process all these data in a matter of weeks on modern office computers, giving us the possibility to study gene expression in a kingdom-wide manner for the first time. We discuss how the expression data can be accessed and processed and outline analyses that take advantage of cross-species analyses, allowing us to generate powerful and robust hypotheses about gene function and evolution.

Application of green plant elements in office space

“green plant elements” visualization of modern office space design is the “green plant space” design development process. The transformation from “green plant element” to “green plant space” is the main expression of interior design in recent years. Explore the green plant elements in modern office space innovation. Green plants in the building has good ecological performance, light weight, easy to shape, has become an indispensable material in modern architecture and interior decoration materials. With the help of natural green plants, green relaxation, fresh and other elements, to create a new modern office environment.

Integration of Modern Educational Technologies in Teaching and Learning of Secretarial Education in Tertiary Institutions in Sokoto State

This study investigated the integration of Modern Educational Technologies in Teaching and Learning of Secretarial Education in Nigerian higher institutions. Descriptive survey research design was adapted where three objectives and research questions were formulated to guide the study. Population of the study consists of 8 lecturers from Sokoto Polytechnic, 12 lecturers from Shehu Shagari College of Education sokoto and 120 secretarial students from polytechnic and college of education were randomly sampled. A total of 140 respondents were employed to form the sample size. A validated questionnaire adapted by the researcher and vetted by experts. The reliability was established through Cronbach Alpha formular. Three instruments namely the modern office technology needed availability (MOTA), modern office technological Usage (MOTU) and Secretarial lecturers competent (SLCT)were used to elicit information from the respondents. The data collected was analysed giving a 95 percent response rate using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 22.0 version). A narrative approach and quantitative tools such as frequency tables and percentages were used to arrange and present the result. The findings of the study revealed that tertiary institutions teaching Secretarial Education/OTM in Sokoto state are lack of modern educational technologies to equip their students and which led most secretarial students have not use to modern office technological gadgets in their institution. Finally, the researcher recommends some points from the conclusion that secretarial education has to make adequately modern office gadgets and curriculum of secretarial administrator and secretarial educator in higher institution of learning should be reviewed to accommodate modern educational technological gadget for effective teaching of secretarial course in tertiary institution in the country.

РОЛЬ КОМУНІКАЦІЙ В СИСТЕМІ УПРАВЛІННЯ СУЧАСНИМ ОФІСОМ

The article collects, substantiates and analyzes the features and role of communications, communication culture and communication process in the management of a modern office. It was determined that the main element of interaction of all links of social interaction in a modern office is information and communication. The dependence of the positive climate in the organization and the high return of employees on the culture of communication and communication was determined. It is noted that the role of communication culture in the organization of modern management has an impact on some key indicators of business efficiency and has a great competitive advantage and is more effective in creating stability and continuity of business. The need to introduce modern technologies into the communications system for effective management of a modern office has been theoretically proven. It was determined that communications in enterprise management connect management functions and have a direct impact on the results of their implementation. It has been proven that in the conditions of personnel migration, it is impossible to do without the rapid introduction of modern technologies and to use all the assets of IT technologies to preserve the existing office staff and improve communication processes. The necessity of introducing new modern types of communications, based on the realization that the future of the modern office will be built on remote teams and the development of mobile business communications, with the aim of attracting young personnel from different countries of the world, is substantiated. It is this model of personnel selection, without reference to the country where the office is located, that will lead to increased competition among personnel. The development and implementation of technologies is noted as one of the effective elements of improving the working conditions of the staff. The necessity of automating business processes as the main aspect of establishing communications inherent in the modern world has been proven. It has been theoretically proven that communications in enterprise management connect management functions and have a direct impact on the results of their implementation.

Office spaces design tendencies after the covid-19 pandemic in comparison with well Building Standard evaluation

The CovId-19 pandemic has accelerated digitisation processes, improvedremote communication systems and revolutionised office work systems. It ishighly probable that all of these changes will convert office areas and officemanagement in the near future. Remote work has brought employers attentionto their employees’ health and wellbeing, as they have been proven to be themain driving force in their companies. Additionally, there is a growing interestin certifying buildings according to the principles of the WELL Building Standard,a system that focuses on evaluating those design and organisational aspectsthat have a direct impact on the wellbeing of building users. This publicationis intended as a review, and the aim of this article is to analyse if following WELLcertification rules can help to design a modern office that suits a post-pandemic society.

Методичні засади проведення навчальних занять з курсантами вищих військових навчальних закладів та військових навчальних підрозділів закладів вищої освіти України з урахуванням досвіду провідних країн світу

B a c k g r o u n d . Modern approaches to the training of officers in Ukrainian institutions of higher military education, in particular with regard to the choice of methods of conducting classes, which have not yet gotten rid of the traditional Soviet military school, which ensured the formation of the performer's personality. At the same time, the Russian-Ukrainian war demonstrates the demand for officers-leaders who are able to take the initiative and be independent in the decisions made and implemented, which causes a discrepancy between the results of the training of military personnel in domestic institutions of higher military education and the objective needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in officers of a certain quality, which determines the research problem. The following goal of the article was set: development of methodological principles for conducting training classes in higher military educational institutions of the leading countries of the world as such, which ensure the formation of the personality of a modern officer of the armed forces and require implementation in the educational process of domestic higher military educational institutions. A possible way to solve it will be the study and implementation in the domestic higher military school of the appropriate foreign experience of training officers, where the formation of a military leader is a long-standing tradition. M e t h o d s . Research methods – survey method, content analysis, experimental method, qualitative and qualitative research methods, sociological observation, system analysis, system approach, method of expert evaluations. R e s u l t s . Studying the experience of conducting classes in the USA and other leading countries of the world allows us to single out the methodological principles of training future officers, which was done by studying sources and by interviewing military personnel who studied at higher military educational institutions of NATO member countries. The conducted activities made it possible to establish that the methodological principles of training include the systematic use of active learning methods, prior independent work of cadets, ensuring the personal contribution of each of them to the study of topics, their active behavior in the lesson. C o n c l u s i o n s . The determined methodical principles made it possible to outline the ways and contribute to the difficulty of their implementation in the educational activity of domestic higher military educational institutions.

Book Review: Unworking: The Reinvention of the Modern Office, by Jeremy Myerson and Philip Ross

Book Review: <i>Unworking: The Reinvention of the Modern Office</i>, by Jeremy Myerson and Philip Ross