Responsibility to the employees' health unavoidable in the creative and innovative design of office spaces

Office space should be designed to provide better productivity and creativity of employees, while preserving their health. Majority of the employees spend most of the day in the office. Workspaces greatly affect the psychological well-being and activities and abilities of employees. Health of employees, which directly affects productivity, is conditioned by the office type. The main objective of this paper is to show the influence of innovative office space design on the employees’ health and to highlight the harmful environmental factors that affect human health. The findings of this study show that office design is very vital in terms of causing or preventing physiological and psychological reactions. Functional features of various types of offices have a different effect on the employee’s ability to perform the personal control. In the case of different types of offices, there are different perceptions of stress in men and women. Some negative health outcomes, like stress, decreasing ability of personal control and TMD-related symptoms are considered

The idea of cognitive city - a challenge for new technology to promote health

New technologies offer us amazing opportunities for the progress of cognitive forms of learning, because they provide a virtual way of observation of the world around us. The concept of cognitive city, as an idea, enables to take advantage of new technologies and their availability in all spheres of society. Health promotion and disease prevention is possible to conduct through the enlightenment of children, youth and people. The program of prevention of human health should be presented in an interesting, user-friendly and modern way. In that sense, an option is as a separate subject or as part of some broader themes in the concept of cognitive cities. For the strategy and the concept of enlightenment, it is necessary to be adapted to the new trends of contemporary strategies of development of urban areas and updated according to the needs of target groups. In addition to providing information, tools are needed that would measure the interest of the people in the topics of health programs with the aim of achieving better results. This paper will indicate the possibilities offered by new technologies implemented as tools for health promotion and disease prevention in the idea of the concept of cognitive cities. The use of multimedia content with the help of new technologies implemented in the concept of cognitive cities can in plastic and entertaining way show the terms and conditions for the use of preventive measures, and why we use them

Smart textiles for healthcare and medicine applications (WG1): state-of-the art report, CONTEXT Project

The aim of this document is to provide information on the state-of-the-art related to the topics covered by each working group within the CONTEXT project. It provides information on materials and technologies used to develop smart textiles with targeted performance, general applications of smart textiles in the field, case-studies on the use of smart textiles, opportunities for smart textiles considering the needs of each field, trends on the development of smart textiles in terms of market and technical expectations. This paper gives an overview of the potential of smart textiles for healthcare & medicine, ongoing developments, state-of-the-art products and future developments

Aspects of the relationship between the architectural heritage and nature for better places in future

Through consideration of the built heritage in terms of biophilic characteristics, different approaches and elements of establishing a relationship to nature can be recognized, which in different ways evolved depending on location, climate, social and cultural conditions. The paper discusses some elements of biophilic design as well as their expression in architectural creation, with an emphasis on highlighting elements of biophilic design in architectural heritage. The importance of connecting people with nature and the need for this connection to be realized for people in urban areas is indicated by numerous papers that prove that nature has a positive effect on the quality of work, education, health, recreation, housing and others. Nowadays, man is more and more alienated from nature by using modern technology to make his life and work easier. New technologies are increasingly represented in our lives, so our built environment has changed very dynamically in the 20th century, as well as at the beginning of the 21st century. Since there is an adverse effect on the physical, psychological and health condition of man, the experience and skills arising from the architectural heritage are becoming increasingly important in order to overcome the problems. This paper presents a brief overview of papers that consider the impact of urban environment on human well-being, as well as studies that address the topic of biophilia as an approach dealing with the need of man to be in a natural environment. The aim of the paper is to indicate that the appreciation of the experience and skills arising from the architectural heritage can provide better places in the future and human well-being