Category Archive For "WELLBEING"
A new and simple approach to wellbeing is reshaping the office
Arguably, no workplace subject is more talked about than wellbeing. This is understandable, given the ways work can affect our wellbeing for good or bad and the fact that the subject embraces a wide range of issue and disciplines. Our general wellbeing is defined by our physical and mental health, our relationships (both in the …
How the Dutch pioneered agile working, wellbeing and the world’s smartest buildings
Many of the challenges we face in selecting the right office design models first became apparent during the 1960s as the world adjusted to the first signs of the technological revolution. At the same time, people across Europe were pressing for changes in the way organisations and the economy worked. The advent of formal workers’ …
Shining daylight on wellbeing and productivity
Some of the most important elements of a workplace design come free. That is just one of the essential lessons from former Sky Workplace Director Neil Usher’s influential book The Elemental Workplace, which sets out the twelve most important characteristics of a productive and healthy working environment.
Office design and the Butterfly Effect
You may recall an idea known as the Butterfly Effect that was popularised a few years ago. The gist of it is that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in China could ultimately affect the weather in New York. It encapsulates the idea that changes in local conditions in a complex and dynamic global system …
The commercial property sector is shifting its focus to wellbeing and the individual
Last October saw the launch of a new report from the British Council for Offices (BCO) called Wellness Matters: Health and Wellbeing in offices and what to do about it. It is one of the most recent indications that the focus of property designers, owners, managers and occupiers is no longer solely on the environment …
The multi-faceted solutions to the major challenge of sedentary office work
Sitting has acquired something of a stigma over the past few years, aided by the now widely shared idea that ‘sitting is the new smoking’. In many ways, a new focus for a debate about the links between the office environment and wellbeing is welcome but the truth is that we’ve been aware of the …
Feeling touchy about office design and the places we work
When it comes to how we think, behave and interact with other people, we may be affected more than we might assume by our sense of touch. According to a study by Simon Storey and Professor Lance Workman from the University of South Wales, people cooperate a lot better with each other when they’ve been …
Is salutogenic design the next big issue for the workplace?
A number of progressive workplace issues have crossed into mainstream thinking over the past few years, and perhaps none more so than biophilia. It is now a principle that has become an issue talked about in the mass media, as shown by a recent CNN interview with one of Europe’s leading proponents of biophilic design …
Why activity based working is an increasingly popular workplace solution
The language we use to describe work and workplaces evolves almost as quickly as the workplace itself. And if there is one term that encapsulates cutting edge workplace design thinking in this part of the 21st Century it is Activity Based Working (ABW). As with most of these ideas there is nothing magical, or even new …
in WELLBEING
Active sitting in the workplace
The following is taken from an interview with Dr Dieter Breithecker, Director of the Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft für Haltungs-und Bewegungsförderung e.V. (German Federal Association for the Promotion of Posture and Movement)
