The case for new academic workspaces

Executive summary: This report draws upon the combined efforts of a number of estates professionals, architects, academics, designers, and senior managers involved in the planning of new university buildings for the 21st century. Across these perspectives, all would agree – although perhaps for different reasons - that this planning is difficult and that a number of particular considerations apply in the design of academic workspaces. Despite these difficulties, they will also agree that when this planning goes well, ‘good’ buildings are truly transformational – for both the university as a whole and the people who work and study in them. The value of well-designed buildings goes far beyond their material costs, and endures long after those costs have been forgotten ..

Design for Coworking in Honolulu.

D.Arch. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2018

Mobility, physical space and learning

Our biological inheritance is to sense the world through many channels including the non verbal. Learning theory, in both organizational and pedagogic contexts, has come to recognise as much, yet the dominant physical expressions given to learning space in both contexts remain rooted in linear arrangements. The advent of contemporary human processing tools and artefacts have the potential to liberate the learner yet space designs, driven by dictates of notional efficiency and a view of work and learning as separate, stationary processes, constrain through a reduction in the natural reliance on sensorial, embodied human capacities. With an example of case material, we suggest an asynchronous co-evolutionary process, a syncretisation of learning theories and space design. Granting physical expression to modern views of the learning process as mobile and corporeal can, accelerate learning. Key words Workspace, workplace, learning, complexity, organizational ecology, mobilit

Behaviour change at work: Empowering energy efficiency in the workplace through user-centred design

Copyright @ 2011 University of California eScholarship RepositoryCO2 emissions from non-domestic buildings - primarily workplaces - make up 18 percent of the UK's carbon footprint. A combination of technology advances and behavioural changes have the potential to make significant impact, but interventions have often been planned in ways which do not take into account the needs, levels of understanding and everyday behavioural contexts of building users - and hence do not achieve the hoped-for success.This paper provides a brief introduction to the Empower project, a current industrial-academic collaboration in the UK which is applying methods from user-centred design practice to understand diverse users' needs, priorities, mental models of energy and decision-making heuristics - as well as the affordances available to them - in a number of office buildings. We are developing and trialling a set of low-cost, simple software interventions tailored to multiple user groups with different degrees of agency over their energy use, which seek to influence more energy efficient behaviour at work in areas such as HVAC, lighting and equipment use. The project comprises an ethnographic research phase, a participatory design programme involving building users in the design of interventions, and iterative trials in a large office building in central London

AirConstellations: In-Air Device Formations for Cross-Device Interaction via Multiple Spatially-Aware Armatures

AirConstellations supports a unique semi-fixed style of cross-device interactions via multiple self-spatially-aware armatures to which users can easily attach (or detach) tablets and other devices. In particular, AirConstellations affords highly flexible and dynamic device formations where the users can bring multiple devices together in-air - with 2-5 armatures poseable in 7DoF within the same workspace - to suit the demands of their current task, social situation, app scenario, or mobility needs. This affords an interaction metaphor where relative orientation, proximity, attaching (or detaching) devices, and continuous movement into and out of ad-hoc ensembles can drive context-sensitive interactions. Yet all devices remain self-stable in useful configurations even when released in mid-air. We explore flexible physical arrangement, feedforward of transition options, and layering of devices in-air across a variety of multi-device app scenarios. These include video conferencing with flexible arrangement of the person-space of multiple remote participants around a shared task-space, layered and tiled device formations with overview+detail and shared-to-personal transitions, and flexible composition of UI panels and tool palettes across devices for productivity applications. A preliminary interview study highlights user reactions to AirConstellations, such as for minimally disruptive device formations, easier physical transitions, and balancing "seeing and being seen"in remote work

A multi-layered approach to surfacing and analysing organisational narratives : increasing representational authenticity

This paper presents an integrated, multi-layered approach to narrative inquiry, elucidating the evolving story of organisational culture through its members and their physical, textual, linguistic and visual dialogue. A dynamic joint venture scenario within the UK hi-technology sector was explored to advance understanding of the impact of transformation level change, specifically its influence on shared belief systems, values and behavioural norms. STRIKE – STructured Interpretation of the Knowledge Environment is introduced as an innovative technique to support narrative inquiry, providing a structured, unobtrusive framework to observe, record, evaluate and articulate the organisational setting. A manifestation of narrative in physical dialogue is illuminated from which the underlying emotional narrative can be surfaced. Focus groups were conducted alongside STRIKE to acquire a first order retrospective and contemporaneous narrative of culture and enable cross-method triangulation. Attention was given to non-verbal signals such as Chronemic, Paralinguistic, Kinesic and Proxemic communication and participants were also afforded opportunities to develop creative output in order to optimise engagement. Photography was employed to enrich STRIKE observation and document focus group output, affording high evidential value whilst providing a frame of reference for reflection. These tools enable a multiplicity of perspectives on narrative as part of methological bricolage. Rich, nuanced and multi-textured understanding is developed, as well as the identification of connections, timbre and subjugated knowledge. A highly emotional and nostalgic context was established with actors’ sense of self strongly aligned with the pre-joint venture organisation and its brand values, norms and expectations. Credibility and authenticity of findings is enhanced through data triangulation indicating traceability across methods, and from the contextual preservation attained through STRIKE. The multi-layered approach presented can facilitate researcher reflexivity and sense-making, while for the audience, it may be employed to help communicate and connect research findings. In particular, STRIKE demonstrates utility, quality and efficacy as a design artefact following ex-post evaluation. This systematic method of narrative inquiry is suitable for standardisation and alongside a diagnostic/prescriptive capacity, affords both researcher and practictioner value in its application

Designing for experience: Example experience design projects on workspace

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Industrial Design, Izmir, 2006Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 94-95)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxv, 96 leavesThe great experiences can be deliberate and are based upon principles that have been proven. This thesis study explored the most important of these principles before the practical study. After that, the study focused on making a practical study on the workspace domain in three main phases.In the data collecting phase, experience data was collected for a workspace domain by observing workspace activities. Used methods were photographing, informal interviews, field notes and ethnographic observation. In the data modeling phase, a data model were constructed. Pattern language was used as a base for re-modeling the experience data. The data model is simply a framework that allows the designer to document, collect, communicate and understand all design related information quickly and easily. During the design phase, this framework became the design guideline and was used as a roadmap for every single design idea.Framework also gives the opportunity of defining relations from patterns to patterns and from design ideas to patterns. This flexible opportunity lets the designer visualize experience scenarios with design ideas in a higher level of understanding. Framework has a special data encapsulation format which is inherited from pattern language. According to that format, short pattern names, short essence paragraphs and other sections makes easier to remember, communicate and connect the patterns with new ideas. At the end of the design phase, three different products which are actively related with the experience patterns were designed