Health promoting design of shared work environments: A salutogenic approach for coworking spaces in post-COVID era

Abstract

This PhD thesis holds at its core the triad: space, design, and health; it examines how shared work environments can offer a healthier experience to their users through space design. In order to achieve this, the study uses a 'salutogenic' approach to analyze the relationship between users' health and the shared work environment design. With a comprehensive approach, health-promoting shared work environments (coworking spaces in this case) should be able to incorporate elements and strategies that enable physical, mental, and social activity, and promote positive health outcomes. After the outburst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world started a painstaking process of adaptation that led to what is being called a new normal in which all kinds of human activities are changing vision and practice. Work conditions have experienced significant changes too; technology allowed the expansion of hybrid work, remote work, and home offices. Some companies reorganized their headquarters as flexible workspaces and many others started using coworking spaces. Even though the onset of the pandemic produced a sudden jolt, the use of shared and flexible workspaces grew due to the above-mentioned work-related changes. However, this new way of working posed the challenge of re-evaluating the design of these spaces because the pandemic demonstrated once more, how the built environment has a direct impact on physical and psychological health. Shared work environments should be planned thinking about how spatial design elements can be selected and combined in order to create a healthy environment and a beneficial work experience. After all, a healthy workplace should be understood as an environment in which managers and coworkers cooperate continuously to ameliorate workers' health, safety, and wellbeing; hence, maintaining productivity and engagement. In this context, Salutogenesis, a discipline mostly applied in health sciences, and more recently in other fields is an appropriate approach for the investigation of healthy work experiences in shared work environments as it addresses wellness focusing on health and not on disease (pathogenesis). Applying this idea to shared workspaces is expected to contribute to their design and evaluation, especially if the notion of environmental demands and resources is complemented. The design of shared workspaces should support physiological and psychological health and contribute to specific positive health outcomes through the evaluation of spatial resources that lead to better health for the users. Even if this study departs from the theoretical contributions of the salutogenic approach, it goes beyond through a comprehensive revision of related theories such as Supportive Design Theory, Psychosocial Supportive Design, Environmental Psychology, and the Environmental Demands and Resources Model. It also discusses notions and principles of Motivational Psychology and Indoor Environmental Standards. On the methodological side, after doing a scoping literature review covering different aspects of prior workspace design, evidence-based design in healthcare facilities, and other concepts and practices; a proposed model of analysis is created to scrutinize the main spatial design attributes that influence and produce the most relevant positive health outcomes. This model defines the essential elements for a healthy work experience, especially in shared workspaces. This model is also meant to constitute a theoretical element that assists in the elaboration of methodological tools and is thought to support architects, designers, workspace owners, and stakeholders in their new designs or to evaluate existing ones. After defining a fan of health-promoting spatial categories and their attributes in coworking spaces, this research used a mixed-method convergent, qualitative, and quantitative, case study design to examine the workplace elements that impacted the perceived health of the users of three different branches of a coworking in Barcelona, Spain. A Post Occupancy Evaluation was chosen as the preferred method for fieldwork investigation with the use of different tools: structured onsite observation checklists, semi-structured interviews, and online questionnaires. Therefore, the influence of coworking space elements on occupants' perceived health was explored through different techniques to inquire about the space, the users, and the management. Key informants were interviewed about the coworking space and their approach to occupant health. Qualitative content analysis was used to interpret the interviews. The survey questionnaire was distributed to 250-300 coworking users in total, and respondents were invited to complete a 22-item survey to determine the impact and importance of workplace attributes on perceived health. The quantitative survey data were analyzed using SPSS software. Although the survey questionnaire was distributed to all occupants, only 33 usable surveys were returned which is considered a limitation of the study. The data collected and their interpretation was a process that departed from a descriptive presentation and went through a more explanatory analysis that allowed the systematization of the results in terms of supportive design, demands, resources (objectively and subjectively), the margin of resources, and health outcomes. They demonstrated that specific interior elements such as environmental control features, access to daylight, or greenery, to name some, should be prioritized as well as features enabling physical activity to support health and to maximize positive health impacts on occupants. Additionally, interview and survey results compared with site observation, revealed shortcomings in current practice, including the lack of awareness about health promotion among users and the management which limits the potential positive impact of the physical environment. With all the previous elements in mind, an expanded exploration was done to summarize and precise specific areas of intervention in spatial design that should be of concern when dealing with coworking spaces. These interventions are an opportunity to perform actions that disrupt patterns that may damage people's health or do not produce a significant positive change. The suggested interventions are thought to considerably improve coworking users' health outcomes. One of them is the need for education in terms of health awareness as well as the importance of integrated workplace policies such as green purchasing or indoor air quality monitoring among others. Finally, a set of design recommendations was organized in the form of general guidelines to demonstrate that the practical implications are closely related to the theoretical findings. It has been confirmed that there is a need for a standard approach to measuring occupant health in the work environment to generate data to ensure future evidence-based solutions. A proactive multi-disciplinary salutogenic approach incorporating both policy-based and physical elements to coworking space design will advance current practice by placing workers' health and well-being at the center of decision-making.