Health and Wellbeing in Modern Office Layouts: The Case of Agile Workspaces in Green Buildings

摘要

At this moment in time, there exists the opportunity not only to report the effects of what exists within the workspace and its changing nature, but to influence the redesign, development, and implementation of the workplace and its environmental factors (Davis et al. 2011). With the change in the nature of work, the spaces in which work is done have also changed. Such a change is partly due to the recent trend of designing and operating energy efficient green buildings. As green building standards require improvements to attributes of indoor environment quality, it is claimed that green buildings improve the health, productivity, and comfort of their occupants. The current research was part of a preparatory study conducted at a large South African organisation before they moved to their new green building. This research investigates how the different existing types of workplace layout, including agile workspaces, impacted on elements of the perceived comfort, health and satisfaction of the employees.