Future Office

Chapter 6Research-Led Design

Nicola Gillen, Dimitra Dantsiou and Carolyn Whitehead

Introduction

The previous chapter describes how employee wellbeing is becoming increasingly important to organisations. However, it is only very recently that wellbeing in offices has started to be actively considered during the design process, as shown by the recent proliferation of wellbeing standards for buildings.¹

Until now, office design has more typically focused on structure, safety, sustainability and costs. Engineering and aesthetics govern the exterior, while efficiency and the goal of making best use of the floorplate guide what happens ...