We recently got to preview the newest addition to In DETAIL’s typological series, Work Environments: Spatial concepts, Usage strategies, Communications. It will be available next month (August 2011), and it is great for anyone who is interested in improving a user’s working conditions beyond the basic ergonomic and safety requirements. The first third of this volume deals with spatial organization, acoustics, lighting, and user satisfaction. The rest of the volume features projects from which the various concepts developed in the first third can be used to analyze them. I, personally, enjoyed the section on user satisfaction and how to measure it. After reading this section I speculated how researchers would control for the various confounding factors that exist in the uniqueness of each building presented in the rest of the book. This would not be an easy task by any means, but the necessity of such research is made clear throughout this volume.
Read more after the break.
Product Description: The requirements confronting our workplaces have recently undergone a dramatic transformation. Constantly shifting workspace populations and varying uses of workspace call for flexible spatial structures, and so do new professions and innovative working methods. The planning of workspaces is influenced by the digitalization of our storage media as well as by new materials and building technologies. And yet for all the importance of flexibility and technology, the ultimate focus is still on human beings. How, then, can the multilayered concepts of indoor climate, lighting, acoustics, and ergonomics be reconciled with spatial structures that lend themselves to a wide variety of uses? In keeping with the typological approach of the series, this volume of the series In DETAIL presents the various working environments organized according to use. The focus throughout is on the successful interplay between technical standards, organizational structures, and human needs.
