Turning the facade inwards - DRAFT by Alistair Law

Turning the faรงade inwards

Alistair Law

Abstract â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Turning the facade inwardsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is a project with the aim to see whether place appropriation and some of the well-being benefits of windows could be recreated through an interactive digital experience in the workplace. Place appropriation has been shown to be vital in many aspects of workplace well-being, mainly as a source of comfort thus reducing stress and encouraging motivation and creativity. Complex window views like those found in nature have also been shown to significantly reduce stress as well as providing a source of mental rejuvenation and projection. The digital experience consisted of a 30 minute highly complex fractal video of the occupants building facade. This was played in a loop for 2 days in each of six working locations. The experience was screened in a typical modern workplace in spaces both with significant views and those with almost zero external visual aspect. The aim of showing the building facade in a new way was to encourage staff to reinterrogate their building and to see it in a new light. The fractal aspect of the video was to reproduce the complexity of views of nature which are constantly evolving. The feedback from occupants was fairly conclusive, the experience engendered feelings of ownership, curiosity and interest in people who partook in the experience. They found it calming and many projected their own imagination in to the complex images. Occupants in spaces without visual aspect treated it more like a window than those without. The discussion is how this experience can inform more permanent interventions in creating these feelings and how a programme of regular events might also help engender such sentiments.

Introduction The project ‘Turning the facade inwards’ stemmed from the enormous importance that place and views have had in the buildings i have worked in. The two elements have engendered in me feelings of both pride and happiness and are instrumental in personal motivation, balance and creativity. It is also an acknowledgment that the majority of employees are not as lucky as I have been in the types of workplaces they occupy. Often employees lucky enough to have a window have limited aspect sometimes on to blank walls and even worse are those stuck in basements. The affirmation of the importance of nature and views in human well-being goes back as far as the temples of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, being built far from towns on hills overlooking the sea (Sternberg (2009)). More recent studies in hospitals by Ulrich (1984) further support this opinion, why only now are we discussing its benefits for the workplace? Place appropriation is one of the key factors associated with staff retention, loyalty and productivity. As one occupant of the Swiss Re building in London said’ Everyone is happier here too, you can tell. We’ve noticed a real buzz about the place. Working somewhere like this does encourage you to stick with the company. It would be sad not to work here any more’ Pidd (2005). As a designer, what can be done for the people without such amazing workplaces? Can one turn the attention towards the interior and create some of the feelings and effects previously mentioned? That is the objective of this study.

Well-being In the Mind Ensuring workplace health and productivity is a delicate balance between psychosocial aspects (employee manager relationships, incentivisation, job advancement and employee support) and environmental aspects (relationship with their environment). Employees personal life, previously seen beyond the realms of employers responsibility, is increasingly important especially in the case of nomadic workers and flexible working so should not be ignored. Although Ellickson et Logson (2002) identified that psychosocial elements account for 52% in variance of job satisfaction the physical environment and personal issues become more important when the psychosocial effects are less pronounced. This follows the logic of Maslow’s (1943) ‘Heirarchy of needs’ when the basic requirements are fulfilled one can focus on higher levels of excellence like creativity and innovation some of the ultimate goals of employers today. This is where the physical environment can play a pivotal role. The physical environment has a significant impact on employees on many different levels both physical and mental that transverses all levels of Maslows Heirarchy of needs. There are basic requirements such as sufficient light (natural), air quality (air changes, temperature), noise and adapted equipment 2

(ergonomomic, efficient). Without these elements resolved additional stress is created (Vischer (2007)) that distracts employees from their daily tasks. Stress is one of the determining factors of employee well being with 60% of lost workdays a year being attributed to stress according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Physical health and psychological health are directly related. Mood has been shown to impact physical health and vice versa. Therefore it is important to understand the complexity of each. Although physical well being factors in the workplace are fairly well understood, as listed above, the environmental psychology aspects are less studied. The psychological aspects of well-being in the workplace can either be direct such as positive feelings from natural light and complex views or indirect such as enhanced place appropriation bringing an overall positive sentiment in employees thus reducing potential stress in all aspects of the workplace including psychosocial stress. With the project ‘Turning the facade inwards’ the focus is on psychological well-being specifically: Place Appropriation and Views for improving well being in the workplace.

Place appropriation Place attachment is sometimes described as belonging or ownership of space resulting in a form of territoriality described in more detail by Davis et Altman (1976). It refers to how physical environments are much more to people than the physical elements that construct them. They are a place of memories, habits, references and cognitive maps. Place appropriation in the workplace is influenced by many factors which interact dynamically so should be understood individually and collectively. These factors include; workplace preferences which might be personal or general, psychosocial elements such as job satisfaction, social positioning factors ie comparisons among peer group, memories such as those left by office events positive or negative, atmosphere that could be social or inspiring or both, privacy providing individual comfort, user control making workers feel empowered and workplace co-creation leading to ownership. Like the cities described by Jane Jacobs (1961), the workplace and especially its perception is a problem of organized complexity ie ‘problems which involve dealing with a sizeable number of factors which are interrelated into an organic whole’. This means that poor psychosocial circumstances (management, salary, advancement...) may override any benefits from creating ‘a more appealing workplace’ which would normally create positive outcomes . The overall context is key. Workplace preferences come from employees mental maps of their vision of the workplace. Some of these mental maps may be

shared among most employees such as preferences for ‘cosy’ office environments or user specific from personal experience such as great memories of ones parents

Psychosocial factors although often out of the control of the workplace designer should not be ignored in the final design. The workplace design is a way of facilitating the psychosocial factors like management and ideally enhancing them. An appropriate office design that clearly demonstrates company values can bring both appropriation to the company and the workplace. Social positioning is about comparing your lot to someone else in your peer group. With the advancement of social media this aspect is becoming more and more pronounced as daily communication between peer groups is facilitated. In the workplace informal external communication is a key business strategy which helps to improve brand and ultimately belonging internally. Memories are what help build our view of the world both physically and sentimentally so are as important in the workplace as they are to life. Social events such as office parties, a funny moment, temporary art installations etc help foster positive feelings towards the workplace thus place appropriation. Atmosphere can be felt immediately, like in Peter Zumthor’s (2006) mesmorizing description of his feelings whilst sitting in a square and two nuns walk across it bathed in an amazing light. It links both his memories to the physical reality and the social dynamic. In a workplace the atmosphere is often described by words such as ‘buzzing’ , ‘inspiring’ or at worse ‘dead’. These feelings 3

Much more than just your office!

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are engendered both dynamically by the movement of people, acoustically with chatter and physically by spatial design. Atmospheres can be contagious and reinforcing. Privacy preferences by employees are both cultural and personal built from experience. Privacy in the workplace contributes to comfort, facilitating or not the completion of tasks that require concentration or discretion. The question of privacy is specifically important when debating the choice of open plan offices vs cubicles. The decision should not be made purely on office efficiency as the productivity results can be catastrophic. User Control is important when empowering employees. There are several dimensions from simply being able to adjust their immediate work environment to having total control in how one works. This personal control helps counter the culture of presenteeism focussing more on task completion. It requires a management culture that is supportive of personal working styles, and great spaces that are adapted, without one the other will not work. Workplace co-creation is where the employee is included in the workplace design process and is one of the most powerful ways of creating place appropriation. It has been clearly demonstrated to bring positive well being benefits to the employee (Lee et Brand 2005). It is also another way of demonstrating to the employee that their opinion is valued bringing additional psychosocial benefits. Why is place attachment or belonging such an important dimension to the workplace? It is often linked to loyalty and commitment to an organisation. It has been

regarded as a better measure of the quality or success of the physical environment than productivity and job satisfaction. (Sundstrom et Sundstrom (1986)). This attachment significantly impacts staff retention and thus directly impacting company performance and costs (Vischer (2008)). Benefit of window views The benefit of window views in the workplace are multifaceted being a source of inspiration, mental regeneration, stress reduction, job motivation (sometimes assigned according to seniority) and as mentioned previously adding to place appropriation (according to personal affinity). There are a couple of theories on how window views improve psychological well being one relates to ‘Attention Restoration Theory’ (Kaplan et Kaplan (1989)) and the other about stress reduction from ‘Restorative Environments’ (Hartig (1991)). Both refer to full immersion in nature although many of the benefits cited have been shown to exist in just views of nature. Kaplan et Kaplan (1989) wrote about the restorative aspects of ‘contact with nature’ on direct attention. They did a study on the impact of nature on work stress and satisfaction by observing 168 public sector workers. They noted that not all types of natural settings contain the full range of restorative elements but many do. They identified four essential qualities of these restorative aspects of nature fascination, being away, extent, and compatibility. Fascination refers to watching things such as trees moving in the wind, requiring involuntary attention, as previously described, allowing the brain used in directed attention 5

to rest. Being away is the importance of escaping their normal environment and all the stress and the obligations it brings. Extent refers to connectedness and scope of the view. Does the view have enough appeal in terms of connectedness and scope to encourage the person to build a mental map? Compatibility refers to whether the environment provides spaces or activities that are compatible with individuals preferences. It specifies spaces that increase rather than limit ones desires in the environment.

been placed on the top floor of towers both for symbolic reasons and the intrinsic value given to views. Conclusion The advances in technology in the workplace has placed significant new stresses on employees. These result in both psychological strain and physical strain with one often compounding the other.

‘The total cost to employers of mental health their staff issurvey estimated The figures during this chapter areproblems from a among photographic I at nearly £26 billion each year. That is equivThe stress reduction conducted asking element a groupofofnature knowledge workers of all ages to phodescribed by Hartig (1991) has been best alent to £1,035 for every employee in the tograph three aspects of their workplace with a caption for each. demonstrated in the study by Ulrich (1984) UK workforce.’ Estimates for the UK by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health The is of ofwindow their facade what it means to them, the second on thefirst impact views onand patient

recovery at a a positive Pennsylvania ‘in aspect and third andhospital. negative respectively of theirestimates workAccording to Bain & Company, comparison with the wall-view group, the of the number of external communications place. The results highlight that a building is very rarely just bricks patients with the tree view had shorter that managers receive has increased from and mortar and good functioning of essential services makes all postoperative hospital stays, had fewer 1,000 a year in 1970 to 30,000 in 2014. Just the difference. negative evaluative comments from nurses, processing this additional information can took fewer moderate and strong analgesic take up to a day a week. As in the case of doses, and had slightly lower scores for mi- Volkswagen who condone the checking of nor postsurgical complications.’ The health emails out of hours, company culture can benefits are multiple and are equally appli- help combat these strains. cable to the workplace. The psychological aspect in the workplace The inspiration impact of window views is a plays an even greater role in creativity. This second order response in as much as that requires employees to feel relaxed and inthe employee needs to feel already good to spired. A good example comes from the be able to reach this higher state. Despite breakthrough in the invention of polio vactheir differences some of the stimuli for cine according to its inventor Jonas Salk stress reduction in views and inspiration are who said it came following his stay in Assisi, shared such as fascination or compatibility. Italy and the inspiration he got from its 13th With respect to motivation window offices century monastery. with views are often assigned according to job seniority. Either formally as in the case of NASA where there is an office allocation matrix according to size and window availability or informally allowing the boss to sit by the window. Senior bosses have often 6

In order to form a coherent strategy for well being in the workplace it is essential to analyse the complete ‘employee well-being experience’ from psychosocial factors to physical factors and then react holistically in order that the benefits are multiplied.

Steelcase Office Strasbourg The objective of the study carried out at the Steelcase Office in Strasbourg was to create an experience that increased the appropriation staff felt towards their building whilst replicating some of the stimuli that might be provided by a window.

furniture are being showcased. Despite this, pre-installation interviews showed a significant office appropriation by the employees with a strong loyalty to Steelcase. Steelcase in addition is seen as one of the more exciting employers to work for in the region.

The Steelcase office in Strasbourg

Being a WorkLab the office is constantly changing. The office showcases only Steelcase products in atmospheres that vary from department to department fascilitating different work styles. The principal building is very long therefore the floor plates are very similar for each department despite the different environments. The decision was made to place the meeting rooms on the north side of the building which has significant negative impacts on limiting external views and natural light. The aspect of limited external views was of particular interest for the final experience i delivered.

The Steelcase office in Strasbourg was chosen above any of their other European regional offices owing to the nature of its architecture. It is of recent construction with a design commonplace on industrial estates all over Europe therefore representative of a large number of offices. Whereas older buildings with character or more distinctive architecture might engender naturally appropriation the intent was to find a building that was neutral in order to test my solutions. Although an office that is neutral of sentiment is difficult to find whatever the architecture as described in more detail later. What is unusual about the building is that Steelcaseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s staff participated in its construction and then in its fit out. It is one of their WorkLab spaces with the intent to demonstrate their latest furniture concepts in a normal working environment and as such the staff are very much living their brand. The office has regular visits by clients making the atmosphere slightly unusual as staff and

The Strasbourg office being a regional hub contains many different types of work units including design, marketing, sales, accounting, management and legal. The result is many different types of work styles going on in different areas thus with different needs. There is also a mix of both nomadic and fixed workers with a number of desks provided for hot-desking. As these areas are generally separated some areas are more sparsely populated than others. 7

Steelcase Office Strasbourg

Pre-Experience Assessment

different for different employees. One mentioned it as a source of annoyance because Pre-experience interviews carried The figures during thiswere chapter areoffrom a photographic I the excess sunlight on survey his computer with a broad selection of the office staff to conducted asking a group of knowledge workers of all ages to phounderstand their current feelings towards screen. This was potentially due to the fact that his window south for and there tograph three aspects workplace with afaced caption each.were the workplace. A standard setof of their questions communal blinds. Others felt the view and were to each on 4 facade topics. Their The posed first is of their andfeelwhat it means to them, the second the changes of light during the day added ing towards their building, what they do to and third a positive and negative aspect respectively of their workde-stress in the office, the role of nature for rhythm to their work. Another talked about place. The results highlight that a building is very rarely just bricks it being a source of inspiration, evasion and them and their feelings towards windows. a focal point. services makes all and mortar and good functioning of essential The feeling towards their buildings varied the difference. significantly with replies as different as ‘i Experience Description love my office, i’m attached to it’ and ‘i don’t The design of the experience was in the look at my office anymore’. Those who had form of a projected film. As described previbeen in the building since Steelcase first ously the intent was to provide a substitute moved in had significantly more attachment for certain stimuli provided in window views than recent arrivals which is expected. A se- and increase place appropriation. ries of photos of the building were shown to To achieve both outcomes the film was deemployees, preferences went to ones show- signed to offer a different, new and exciting ing the building with the Steelcase logo on view of their building, with a fractal complextypically shown in their publicity brochures. ity to replicate a view of nature that would There was a general consensus that to destress and gather ones thoughts staff left their immediate work environment. Certain even exited the building to gather fresh air and smells. Others went to the canteen out of hours as it is quiet with a terrace or to walk round the office to see colleagues as a healthy distraction. Different personality types preferred isolation, other socialising. The role of nature for employees was generally very important. Many talked about living in the countryside and being proud of living in Alsace because of this. The immediate surroundings of the office are fairly green with mature trees and moderately open views with the nearest buildings being 50-100m away and all low rise. People felt happy with the surrounding views of nature. The response to the role of the window was 10

help with de-stressing and mental projection.

This film was then showed in 6 different locations around their office that had different visual aspects in order to understand its impact on occupants. Some installation locations had almost 360 degree window views and others had very limited views. The film which lasted 30 minutes was played on continuous loop for two days in each location. The film was built up from a time lapse film of the facade. The facade was then fragmented in another 800 pieces of film at different moments of the day. They were then put back together to create a speeded up film of one day. The intention was to show the beauty of the simple facade as it changes colour during the day, naturally evolving. By the fragmentation the intent was to create

Stills of film projected

something that was so complex that it would start to resemble that of trees or bushes moving in the wind. The speed of each part of the film was specifically chosen to make sure it was relaxing in order to create the rejuvenation and mental projection aspect of the film as found in window views. The film was designed to be long enough that people would not watch the whole film or be able to identify the same moment again. The choice of projection rather than playing on a television screen was intentional to avoid negative connotations associated with certain objects. This was especially the case as television screens at Steelcase were used for welcoming guests or feeding staff information something i didn’t want associated with the film. The film was intended to offer a refurbishment of the building facade in the mind of the viewer, someone who already knew the building and had their own memories of the facade. The hope after seeing the film is that they would reinterrogate their facade and add a positive artistic interpretation of it to their memories. Additional moments were added to the film including a piece of the facade being revealed whilst the weekly barbecue was being lit on the roof terrace as a way of connecting to existing memories. These moments were important as a form of personalisation of the film.

General feedback of the film is that it indeed offered a new look at their office. One person said it touched them and was very personal another said it made them want to reappropriate their building. Many said it made their building look better or they would pay closer attention to the facade in future. Regarding the viewing of the film, areas which had very good window views attracted the least interest. Most rarely looked at the film. Those with limited views of the window engaged significantly with the film very much treating it like a window. Like looking at clouds they projected their imagination in to the film some seeing motorways others cities lighting up. One person said it was a source of inspiration. People found it relaxing and mentioned it was a bit like looking through a window. The semantic differential rating survey was conducted on seven people in one screening location with limited window views. The survey had 17 barometers of opposing feelings taken from a survey by Japanese social scientists when assessing windowless office spaces (Sato (1994)). People had to rate for example whether the experience was more free or restricted with a scale of 1 being free and 5 being restricted or whether it was more relaxing or depressing etc. The broad tendencies that came out were descriptions such as ‘spacious, interesting, natural, friendly and free’.

Post-Experience Feedback A series of one to one interviews were conducted with eight people who were subjected to the film as well as a semantic differential rating survey for one location where seven people were surveyed. 13

Conclusion & Discussion

It should be noted that the film was projected for two days in each location and owing to the films length of 30 minutes the relentless showing of the film in a loop might become annoying after significantly more showing. Ideally a constantly evolving film that develops during the day would be best to avoid this. Real windows have multiple elements that make up the whole including daylight, movement, complexity, the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;unexpectedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and controllability. The film achieved both movement and complexity but repetition of the more interesting moments would probably reduce their impact. Compatibility as described by Kaplan et Kaplan (1989) for the viewer was achieved as it is a building they already knew and generally liked. It should be noted that no controls were made for psychosocial factors such as internal business restructuring or other that could have had a significant impact on peoples mental state. 14

views might not be available externally through the lack of windows or poor aspects, whether their is the potential for internal landscapes to replace them. This could be dynamically in the likes of a projection or statically with complex interior landscapes provided through the furniture. The opportunities are enormous especially with the increased trend of internal greening of offices. Particular acute examples where staff work in such conditions are in basement offices, deep plan floorplates, back of house areas of hotels or staff quarters in hospitals. The other opportunity that the experience demonstrated was the possibility of refurbishing a building in the mind very cheaply using video installations / projections. This could also be achieved by more abstract methods such as engaging temporary art installations or concerts. It is about associating new positive memories with the building. Although temporary events might have limited lifespans in terms of impact.. Offices at their best are as alive as the people that occupy them, offering constant exchanges, stimulation and refuge. The moment they become stale so will the staff who occupy them and they will start loosing their effectiveness. Time for change!

The Future?

Bibliography

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Special Thanks Catherine Gall - Steelcase Stephane Hugon - ERANOS Armand Behar - ENSCI Les Ateliers ENSCI Les Ateliers