Interior designers’ strategies for creating social office space

Interior designers’ strategies for creating social office space

Colenberg, S.E. (TU Delft Design Conceptualization and Communication)
Appel-Meulenbroek, Rianne (Eindhoven University of Technology)
Romero Herrera, N.A. (TU Delft Design Conceptualization and Communication)
Keyson, D.V. (TU Delft Design Conceptualization and Communication)

2023

The rise of remote working has highlighted the importance of office spaces that support employees’ social well-being. However, there is a lack of explicit knowledge on how to design such spaces. In order to address this gap, this study explored the strategies employed by practitioners in designing social office spaces. In-depth interviews with fifteen experienced interior designers were analysed using means-end chain theory. This revealed the designers’ common aim to encourage informal social interactions through creating attractive, spacious, recognisable, and spatially integrated breakout spaces. Additionally, communicating group identity, promoting visibility, and offering a cosy atmosphere aimed to foster a sense of connectedness among employees. These findings not only enable more deliberate design decisions but also serve as valuable insights for less experienced designers. Moreover, the framework of design components, affordances and design objectives that emerged from this study can enhance communication between designers and stakeholders involved in office projects.

affordances
design strategies
interior design
means-end chain analysis
office environments

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5a2e9b82-12d1-4f7e-980c-4ecac943dcff

https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2023.2270788

0014-0139

Ergonomics: an international journal of research and practice in human factors and ergonomics

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2023 S.E. Colenberg, Rianne Appel-Meulenbroek, N.A. Romero Herrera, D.V. Keyson