The Office Environment: Space Planning and Affective Behavior

Abstract

The present state of the art in office and space planning described, and the results of a field study of the effects of office design on the occupants are presented. The attitudes and perceptions of 120 employees toward work practices and their office environment were recorded, using a semantic scaling instrument, immediately before and nine months after a change in their surroundings from a conventional mixture of rectilinear open plan, semiprivate and private offices, to a landscaped design. Chi-square analyses of contingency tables cast from combinations of subject group, instructional set, and experimental condition, showed significant increases in judgments of aesthetic value and decreases in judgments of functional efficiency. A perceived increase in noise level, loss of privacy, and increase in visual distractions were chief causes of complaint. There were some positive changes in group sociability.