Exploring the effectiveness of non-territorial workspace at alternate workplaces

Workplace environments are ever changing and typically contingent upon various changes that take place in society including economics, demographic shifts, and technology (Maitland & Thompson, 2011). In last decade, pendulum for workplace environment has gone back and forth from vastly open offices to private arrangements. One trend that has emerged recently is the Alternate Workplace Strategy (AWS). This strategy expands definable work zones beyond the individual assigned or unassigned workspace, creating a combination of elements like workstations, open and enclosed collaboration and interaction zones and so on. The core value of this strategy is to create a workplace that is a stronger tool for people to create business results (Becker & Steele, 1995). The unassigned or non-territorial workspace is where the individual employee has no dedicated personally assigned office, workstation, or desk (Becker & Steele, 1995). Most of the research in workplace focuses either on impact of open office space on employee’s well-being, productivity, interaction or issues related to privacy and focus. Significant research is not found in the area of unassigned workspaces based on the model of AWS and its relation to employees’ satisfaction and engagement. Grounded in research that includes the history of workplace design, issues inherent in organization and operation, and matters associated with individual productivity within the workplace environment, the purpose of this thesis is to better understand how non-territorial workspace in an AWS model translates into an effective workspaces. Family and Work Institute (http://www.familiesandwork.org/) categorizes six components for an effective workplace. The six categories are: opportunities for learning, supervisor support for work success, autonomy, culture of trust, work-life fit and satisfaction with earnings, benefits and opportunities for advancement (Families and Work Institute, 2012). For the purpose of this thesis, only three categories: opportunities of learning, autonomy and culture of trust are taken into consideration as the other three categories focuses more on workplace operation and policy making and not particularly on spatial parameters. The primary research questions driving this study are: What spatial characteristics in non-territorial alternate workplace make them effective workplaces? Do these spatial characteristics contribute positively to employees’ engagement, satisfaction and retention? This thesis is researched through the lens of two case studies of firms recently designed on this strategy. Mixed methodology i.e. primarily qualitative with quantitative survey nested into it is used for this study. Grounded theory, one of the strategies of qualitative research methodology is applied to this research as an overarching methodology and as a method for analyzing the data. The thesis is aimed to reveal the participants’ perspectives and interpretations of their own actions/behavior and their physical environment on effectiveness in relation to the non-territorial alternate workplace. The information helped in development of an overarching theoretical scheme for integrating categories and describing the employees’ experiences of their work environment from the various perspectives. This thesis will help bridge that gap and document how the strategy of non-territorial workplace can translate into an effective workspace for the employees where they can be engaged, satisfied and plan to stay longer. This study will provide recommendations that could inform design practitioners, educators, and contribute to the overall body of knowledge in this area

My boy builds coffins. Future memories of your loved ones

The research is focus on the concept of storytelling associated with product design, trying to investigate new ways of designing and a possible future scenario related to the concept of death. MY BOY BUILDS COFFINS is a gravestone made using a combination of cremation’s ashes and resin. It is composed by a series of holes in which the user can stitch a text, in order to remember the loved one. The stitching need of a particular yarn produced in Switzerland using some parts of human body. Project also provides another version which uses LED lights instead of the yarn. The LEDs - thanks to an inductive coupling - will light when It will be posed in the hole. The gravestone can be placed where you want, as if it would create a little altar staff at home. In this way, there is a real connection between the user and the dearly departed

Creating International Credit Rules and the Multilateral Agreement on Investment: What are the Alternatives?

In Jonathan Michie and John Grieve Smith (eds.), Global Instability and World Economic Governance. London and New York: Routledge Press.

Lucy + Jorge Orta, Potential Architecture

Cells are a part of the human body; they are at the origin of its being, its feelings, its emotions, and its sufferings. Thus, they speak the language of the body. There are also cells of habitation. The relationship between people and their habitat is formed in this metaphorical cell. Living and being become a single and unique life experience. Cristina Morozzi Potential Architecture explores artists Lucy + Jorge Orta’s recent architectural endeavors that derive from their fascination with cell biology and the process of differentiation. Through drawings and sculpture, the artists conceptualize the communication process the human cell undertakes from its embryonic state, and the infinite transformations that lead to defined structural organisms. This new body of work draws from Lucy + Jorge Orta’s artistic practice, grounded in the universal concerns of community, shelter, migration, and sustainable development. Potential Architecture is a powerful rejoinder to the arbitrary boundaries that define art, architecture, and design

Social Housing in Serbia: Dual Approach

Examining Serbian housing policy in the past two decades which has been radically transfered from the communist version of "welfare state" to the neoliberal concept of housing market, this paper firstly identifies major subjects and activities in the field of social housing and systematizes kinds of action related to these activities. Sudden state’s withdrawal from the housing matter, followed by the lack of land regulations and permanent economic crisis, caused almost unsolvable problem of adequate provision of housing for the most of the population in Serbia. The initial course, performed through privatisation of 98 % of public housing stock at the beginning of the last decade of the 20th century, took place apart from the few other housing policy initiatives and processes that were unconformably to each other. The state successively abandoned introduction of housing policy, untill it almost ran short of its institutional and active capacities that had been developing by decades in communism. Until 2004 housing policy was trying to achieve short-dated political aims, but since then, the need for introducton of new systematic housing solutions, including social housing above all, emerged. Serbian government began to act in two separate ways, although without yet astablished long-term national housing policy: First was to try to support, financially and legislatively, production of affordable housing, so called "cheap flats" for subsidized sale; and the other was to try to establish public rented housing, but this time based on economic sustainability instead of general social equity proclaimed in communism. Several projects of "cheap flats" for subsidized sale have been developed, while some of them are stlill under construction, or in the planing stage. On the other side, the initial impulse for public rented housing foundation in Serbia was the 15 milion euros pilot project – Settlement and Integration of Refugees Programme (SIRP 2003-2008.) – financed by the Italian government, that was realized in seven Serbian municipalities. Thus, first non-profit Public Housing Agencies in Serbia were established, and new public housing stock was built and inhabited. Considering serbian social housing policy in general and highlighting some of their characteristics related to several projects, this study focuses on both of these two recognized courses by analisys and critic review of achieved results

Evidence-based design utilized in hospital architecture and changing the design process: a hospital case study

As a new paradigm in healthcare design in the 21st century, evidence-based design (EBD) has played a critical role in the changing hospital architectural design process and shaping new images of hospital architecture. Evidence-based design is research informed, and its results affect not only patients' clinical outcomes but also medical facility operational efficiency and its staff retention and satisfaction. This research investigated how EBD was implemented in hospital architectural design and how traditional design process was modified to incorporate credible research evidence through a case study at Grand River Hospital in the United States. This study took a qualitative approach with grounded theory methodology. The methods used for this research were multiple sources of data collection through document reviews, observations, and interviews. Findings revealed that the investigation for EBD needs to focus on environment-behavior studies especially in the development of explanatory theory. This study also recommended a modified cyclical design process model for integrating EBD. This redefined design process model requires collaborations with all stakeholders by adding visioning sessions, multiple design charrettes, mock-ups, and the functional performance evaluation to help to implement research evidence and make design decisions to achieve the best possible outcomes

A Generic Network and System Management Framework

Networks and distributed systems have formed the basis of an ongoing communications revolution that has led to the genesis of a wide variety of services. The constantly increasing size and complexity of these systems does not come without problems. In some organisations, the deployment of Information Technology has reached a state where the benefits from downsizing and rightsizing by adding new services are undermined by the effort required to keep the system running. Management of networks and distributed systems in general has a straightforward goal: to provide a productive environment in which work can be performed effectively. The work required for management should be a small fraction of the total effort. Most IT systems are still managed in an ad hoc style without any carefully elaborated plan. In such an environment the success of management decisions depends totally on the qualification and knowledge of the administrator. The thesis provides an analysis of the state of the art in the area of Network and System Management and identifies the key requirements that must be addressed for the provisioning of Integrated Management Services. These include the integration of the different management related aspects (i.e. integration of heterogeneous Network, System and Service Management). The thesis then proposes a new framework, INSMware, for the provision of Management Services. It provides a fundamental basis for the realisation of a new approach to Network and System Management. It is argued that Management Systems can be derived from a set of pre-fabricated and reusable Building Blocks that break up the required functionality into a number of separate entities rather than being developed from scratch. It proposes a high-level logical model in order to accommodate the range of requirements and environments applicable to Integrated Network and System Management that can be used as a reference model. A development methodology is introduced that reflects principles of the proposed approach, and provides guidelines to structure the analysis, design and implementation phases of a management system. The INSMware approach can further be combined with the componentware paradigm for the implementation of the management system. Based on these principles, a prototype for the management of SNMP systems has been implemented using industry standard middleware technologies. It is argued that development of a management system based on Componentware principles can offer a number of benefits. INSMware Components may be re-used and system solutions will become more modular and thereby easier to construct and maintain