Bigger, better, faster, more? The paradox of choice in open plan offices.

Paradox of choice in open plan offices Sailer, Oct 2016@kerstinsailer

Bigger, better, faster, more?The paradox of choice in open plan officesDr Kerstin SailerReader in Social and Spatial NetworksBartlett School of ArchitectureUniversity College London

Workplace Trends Conference, London, 11th October 2016

Paradox of choice in open plan offices Sailer, Oct 2016

The rebirth of the office in Silicon Valley

Google HQ in Mountainview (BIG and Heatherwick)

Samsung America HQ in San Jose (NBBJ)

Facebook HQ in Menlo Park (Frank Gehry)Apple HQ in Cupertino (Foster + Partners)


Facebook: The largest single-building open plan office in the world

430,000 sqft 2,800 staff

… including way-finder touchscreens that employees can use to find a desk


Research (and opinion) on open plan offices


Jungsoo Kim and Richard de Dear

Database of Center for the Built Environment Berkeley: ~43,000 participants in 300 office buildings[yet only 6.7% in truly open plan offices without partitions]



Latest research by Rachel Morrison on ‘Workplace Angst’

1000 Australian office workers



The missing piece in the puzzle: spatial layout

OPEN PLAN ≠ OPEN PLAN


Regular grid to create isovists

Floor plan

Syntax model: Strategic visibility

IntegratedSegregated

Constructing a visibility graph (VGA)

A scientific approach to evaluate layouts: Space Syntax


Spatial layout matters


Spatial layout matters!


Spatial layout matters!

Segr

egat

edIn

tegr

ated


Research on open plan offices and interaction networks

Common wisdom:

1. Increase size of the floor plate to increase numbers of people to reach easily.

2. Increase openness and degrees of visibility across the office to increase awareness of presence of others.

Is big really better?


Research on open plan offices and interaction networks

Two data sources: networks and space

1 2 Spatial layout

• Average size of floor plates

• Average connectivity [size of isovists]

Interaction networks

• Percentage of ties between people in different departments and on different floors


Research results: The big picture

In offices with smaller floor plates and… in offices with less local visibility…

R2=0.33** R2=0.25*

…people have a higher proportion of frequent interactions with others on different floors and in different departments.


Research results: The case of a Retailer HQ

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

Dept

PRE POST236 staff, 11 departments, 2 floors, open plan but highly partitioned

268 staff, 11 departments, single floor, very open layout



PRE POST



PREAverage number of contacts

POST7.5 7.0

Average number of contacts between department 4 and 5

0.7 0.1

Average number of contacts within department 18.2 6.1

DAILY INTERACTION


Hell is other people.

Jean-Paul Sartre


The Paradox of Choice

Barry Schwartz


Conclusions

text


Dr Kerstin SailerReader in Social and Spatial Networks

Space Syntax LaboratoryBartlett School of Architecture, UCL

140 Hampstead RoadLondon NW1 2BX

United Kingdom

Thank you!

[email protected]@kerstinsailerhttp://spaceandorganisation.org/http://tinyurl.com/kerstinsailer

Bigger, better, faster, more? The paradox of choice in open plan offices.

Business

Transcript of Bigger, better, faster, more? The paradox of choice in open plan offices.