Outdoor Office Work – An Interactive Research Project Showing the Way Out

Abstract

The physical boundaries of office work have become increasingly flexible. Work is conducted at multiple locations outside the office, such as at clients’ premises, at home, in cafés, or when traveling. However, the boundary between indoor and outdoor environment seems to be strong and normative regarding how office work is performed. The aim of this study was to explore how office work may be conducted outdoors, understanding how it is being experienced by office employees and identifying its contextual preconditions. Based on a two-year interactive research project, the study was conducted together with a Swedish municipality. Fifty-eight participants engaged in the collaborative learning process, including 40 half-day workshops and reflective group discussions, co-interviews, and participants’ independent experimentation of bringing work activities outdoors. Data was collected via interviews, group discussions and a custom-made mobile application. The results showed that a wide range of work activities could be done outdoors, both individually and in collaboration with others. Outdoor work activities were associated with many positive experiences by contributing to a sense of well-being, recovery, autonomy, enhanced cognition, better communication, and social relations, but also with feelings of guilt and illegitimacy. Conditions of importance for outdoor office work to happen and function well were found in the physical environment, where proximity to urban greenspaces stood out as important, but also in the sociocultural and organizational domains. Of crucial importance was managers’ attitudes, as well as the overall organizational culture on this idea of bringing office work outdoors. To conclude, if working life is to benefit from outdoor office work, leaders, urban planners and policymakers need to collaborate and show the way out.

Understanding the Perceived Benefits of Nature for Creativity

“…Jones (2013) reports on enhanced self‐perceptions of creativity among teachers after a week‐long nature‐based training session, and in studies of both Australian (Luckman, 2009) and Danish (Plambech & Konijnendijk van den Bosch, 2015) creative professionals, nature is identified as a means of reflection, restoration, and inspiration for artists/creatives. A Swedish “outdoor office” intervention was associated with self‐reported feelings of creativity and inspiration among participants, supported by new cognitive perspectives (Petersson Troije et al., 2021). Here, concepts from restorative environments research are linked explicitly to enhanced perceptions of creative processing and outputs.…”

Creating Restorative Nearby Green Spaces for Knowledge Workers: Theoretical Mechanisms, Site Evaluation Criteria, and Design Guidelines

“…Exposure to nature during working hours and breaks can help knowledge workers promptly recover from fatigue and stress and build strong social ties [14][53]~ [55] . Working outdoors surrounded by natural environments can promote stress reduction, executive function, and social relation [55]~ [57] . Physical activities during work breaks in workplace can also aid attention restoration, sleep quality, immune function, and prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, depression, and certain types of cancer [27][58]~ [60] .…”

“…Outdoor working represents a mixed behavioral mode with minor or moderate physical activities, such as standing, walking, biking, and jogging, when people work as individuals or groups. The following seven key environmental characteristics of green spaces can facilitate physical activities (Table 5): 1) open [58][60]~ [62] ; 2) penetrable and deflected vista of nature [60]~ [62] ; 3) compatible facilities [59][60] ; 4) interactive and artificial intelligence landscape [59][60] ; 5) compact and multifunctional paved space [61] ; 6) tree canopy and shelter facilities [57][60] [61] ; and 7) continuous and circular pathways [60][62] [63] . We rated these characteristics using a five-point Likert scale.…”

“…体力活动机会的提升可带来生理、心理与行为层面上的多种健康效 益 [50][51] 。在不同环境下，体力活动都能对心理健康产生积极影响，不 55] ；在以自然景观为主的户外环境中工作，能有效减轻压力、提 升执行力、增进社会关系 [55]~ [57] ；工作休息期间进行体力活动还能帮助恢 复注意力、改善睡眠质量、增强免疫力，并有助于预防如糖尿病、高 血压、抑郁症与部分癌症等慢性疾病 [27][58]~ [60] 。 在绿地开展的体力活动主要包括休闲体力活动与户外工作，而户外 工作包括多种行为--人们在单独或团队工作时，可能会涉及低至中等强 度的体力活动，如站立、步行、骑行、慢跑等。有助于促进体力活动的绿 地具有以下七个关键环境特征(表5)：1)开敞 [58][60]~ [62] ；2)通透且变换 的自然视野 [60]~ [62] ；3)兼容性设施 [59][60] ；4)互动型人工智能景观 [59][60] ； 5)紧凑的多功能硬质铺装场地 [61] ；6)树荫与遮蔽设施 [57][60] [61] ；7)贯通 的环路 [60][62] 丰富感官体验是对上述三个机制的补充。基于亲生命假说与相关实证 研究，丰富感官体验机制指出了恢复性绿地的其他关键特征 [41][42][64] [65] 。在 本研究中，知识工作者大多工作时间都身处室内，很少接触户外蓝绿空 间，而户外蓝绿空间可提供丰富的感官刺激，促进减轻压力、恢复注意 力，并提供其他认知与情感效益 [66]~ [68] 。 该机制表明，特定环境特征能鼓励人们更加亲近自然，以获得多种 健康效益 [69]~ [71] 。绿地能提供四种主要的感官体验(即视觉、触觉、嗅觉 与听觉)，这些体验能促进人们的身心健康与社交互动 [70]~ [72] 。能促进感 官体验的绿地具有以下七个环境特征(表6)：1)生物多样性 [41][42][64] [65] ； 2)互补性对比元素 [68][71] ；3)记忆标志 [66][67][72]~ [74] ；4)活力 [70][71] ；5)热 舒适性 [65][69] [75] ；6)气味宜人 [76] ；7)声景和谐 [77]~ [79] 。我们使用李克特量…”

Methods for inclusive design processes at the early stages of a research project in School Environments

“…Research on the various levels of participants' involvement explored at which level each group (teachers, pupils, parents, and school staff) needed to be consulted [15]. Participatory practices were previously used in evaluating and designing office spaces [17], with positive outcomes in employee satisfaction, work engagement and performance [18][19][20]. Due to the various educational reforms [7,8] and the lack of adequately designed spaces to accommodate these changes [21,22], participatory methods were increasingly incorporated into educational research [13].…”