'The End of Sitting':An Empirical Study on Working in an Office of the Future

Background Inspired by recent findings that prolonged sitting has detrimental health effects, Rietveld Architecture Art Affordances (RAAAF) and visual artist Barbara Visser designed a working environment without chairs and desks. This environment, which they called The End of Sitting, is a sculpture whose surfaces afford working in several non-sitting postures (e.g. lying, standing, leaning). Objective In the present study, it was tested how people use and experience The End of Sitting. Eighteen participants were to work in this environment and in a conventional office with chairs and desks, and the participants' activities, postures, and locations in each working environment were monitored. In addition, participants' experiences with working in the offices were measured with a questionnaire. Results It was found that 83 % of participants worked in more than one non-sitting posture in The End of Sitting. All these participants also changed location in this working environment. On the other hand, in the conventional office all but one participant sat on a chair at a desk during the entire work session. On average, participants reported that The End of Sitting supported their well-being more than the conventional office. Participants also felt more energetic after working in The End of Sitting. No differences between the working environments were found in reported concentration levels and satisfaction with the created product. Conclusion The End of Sitting is a potential alternative working environment that deserves to be examined in more detail

Aldo van Eyck's Playgrounds:Aesthetics, Affordances, and Creativity

After World War II, the Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck developed hundreds of playgrounds in the city of Amsterdam. These public playgrounds were located in parks, squares, and derelict sites, and consisted of minimalistic aesthetic play equipment that was supposed to stimulate the creativity of children. Over the last decades, these playgrounds have been studied by sociologists, theorists of art and architecture, and psychologists. Adopting an ecological approach to the human environment, it is argued that the abstract forms of van Eyck’s play sculptures indeed stimulate the creativity of the child. Whereas a slide or a swing almost dictates what a child is supposed to do, van Eyck’s play equipment invites the child to actively explore the numerous affordances (action possibilities) it provided. However, it is argued that the standardization (e.g., equal distances between blocks or bars) that tends to characterize van Eyck’ play equipment has negative effects on the playability. This standardization, which was arguably the result of the aesthetic motives of the designer, might be appealing to children when simply looking at the equipment, but it is not of overriding importance to them when playing in it. Indeed, a recent study indicates that the affordances provided by messy structures appear to have a greater appeal to playing children

Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty? How to Reverse the Effect of Glass Elongation on the Volume Poured

To reduce the volume of drinks and the risk of overconsumption, health professionals recommend the use of tall skinny instead of short wide glasses. Yet the results of the present study contradict this health advice. Participants who generously filled up a glass with lemonade served 9% more in tall narrow compared with short wide glasses (p<0.05). In addition, when pouring a small amount (i.e., a shot), participants poured 3% more in a short wide than in a tall narrow glass (p<0.05). Elongation may bias the perceived volume that is poured but also the perceived volume of the free space in the glass. We hypothesised that shifting attention from the bottom to the brim of the glass when filling it close to capacity might reverse the glass elongation effect on the quantity poured. This hypothesis was tested, by investigating two pouring tasks that differed in the required focus of attention. When the instruction was to match a reference volume, participants poured more liquid in the short wide compared with the tall narrow glass (p<0.05). The effect of glass elongation on poured volume was the opposite when the instruction was to leave space in the glasses for the reference volume. It seems likely that task and individual factors affect the pourer's viewing strategy and thus may determine the direction of the glass elongation effect on the volume poured

Gap-crossing behavior in a standardized and a nonstandardized jumping stone configuration

Over the last years, the omnipresent standardization of playgrounds-the distances between, for example, jumping stones tend to be equal-has been criticized by both scientists and architects. First, it has been argued that standardization fails to do justice to the variability in the children's action capabilities. Second, it might simplify play in that children repetitively cross over the same distance and, thus, do not have to worry about their movements anymore. In the present study we examined the gap-crossing behavior of children in both a standardized and a nonstandardized jumping stone configuration. Children, between 5 and 10 years of age, were to play in each configuration for two minutes. No significant differences between the configurations were found in the number of gaps the children crossed and the percentage of jumps (ps>0.05). However, more children crossed a gap that they perceived as challenging (i.e. gap width close to their estimated maximum jumping distance) in the nonstandardized configuration than in the standardized one. Interestingly, significant differences were found in variables reflecting the children's action preparation-the variation in both the time on a jumping stone and the numbers of steps on it was bigger in the nonstandardized playground than in the standardized one (ps<0.05). The implications of these findings are discussed for both the design of playgrounds and the academic discussions about them

Height, Size, and/or Gap Width Variation in Jumping Stone Configurations:Which Form of Variation Attracts Children the Most?

Earlier studies revealed that children prefer nonstandardized jumping stone configurations to standardized ones. In the present study, we examined whether children playing on jumping stones prefer variation in stone height, stone size, and/or gap width. In Experiment 1, children could play freely on one standardized configuration and three configurations in which one of the aforementioned factors was varied. It was found that children judged the variation in height as most fun. Yet, the configuration with gap width variation appeared to be most challenging for the children-most overground steps were made in this configuration. In Experiment 2, we examined whether the attractiveness of the configurations increased when height variation was combined with the other forms of variation. Adding size and/or gap width variation to the variation in height did not contribute to the attractiveness of the configuration. In line with experiment 1, it was found that the configurations with gap width variation were judged as the most challenging for children. The implications of these results are discussed in the context of the literature on play.</p

Crossing the Gap:Older Adults Do Not Create Less Challenging Stepping Stone Configurations Than Young Adults

Background Despite the known health benefits of physical activity, the number of older adults exercising regularly remains low in many countries. There is a demand for public open space interventions that can safely train balance, muscular strength, and cardiovascular fitness. In this participatory design study, older adults and young adults were to create their own stepping stones configurations. We provided them with six stepping stones, and examined the gap widths that each group of participants created and how they used the configurations. Results The created absolute gap distances by the older adults were smaller than those of the younger adults. Yet, the amount of challenge (in terms of the created gap widths relative to a person's estimated stepping capability) did not significantly differ between the young and older adults. Furthermore, both groups created non-standardized stepping stone configurations in which the number of different gap widths did not significantly differ between the young and older adults. Interestingly, while using their personalized design, older adults made significantly more gap crossings than younger adults over a given timespan. This finding tentatively suggests that personalized design invites physical activity in older adults. Conclusion The present study demonstrated that older adults are not more conservative in designing their own stepping stone configuration than young adults. Especially in light of the public health concern to increase physical activity in seniors, this is a promising outcome. However, field tests are needed to establish whether the older adults' stepping stones designs also invite physical activity in their daily environment

The degree to which traditional play equipment, Parkour play elements, and Aldo van Eyck's play sculptures have an open function

The concept of open functions was introduced to capture an intended feature of van Eyck's seminal play sculptures - they do not suggest a specific action. In a recent study, Van der Schaaf, A. L., S. R. Caljouw, and R. Withagen. (2020. "Are Children Attracted to Play Elements with an Open Function?" Ecological Psychology 32: 79-94) aimed to determine the degree of openness of Parkour play elements by asking participants what behavior children will mainly perform on them. In the present study, we used this method to determine the degree of openness of traditional play elements (e.g. a slide), van Eyck's play sculptures, and Parkour play elements. In addition, we measured the time participants needed to answer the question of what action children will mainly perform on the different elements. We found that generally the Parkour elements have the highest degree of openness. Interestingly, van Eyck's play elements appeared not to be that open. Moreover, the reaction time proved to be an alternative measure for the degree of openness