Why is my office so cold? Elements that contribute to well-being in workspaces
If you have to spend most of your day in an office for work reasons, you are probably familiar with the passage of certain days when it is too cold or too hot. While some of your colleagues complain that the office is a real sauna, others say that it is impossible to survive the winter without a good blanket and a heater. In most cases, the debates about the ideal temperature never end in agreements, and there are even those who never manage to agree on the average temperature at which the air conditioning should be, so that everyone feels comfortable. The truth is that the feeling of comfort varies greatly from person to person and this is a problem in common areas. The same goes for lighting. Have you ever been in a meeting room with too much light or too little lighting that made you uncomfortable?
When you think about the interior design of workplaces, the obvious elements come to mind: organization, furniture, finishes, colors and any other aspect of the space that adds to the overall experience. However, no matter how relevant these physical details are in the design of workspaces, the conditions that really make an office the ideal place for your employees often end up being underestimated or neglected.
In 2015, a survey showed that 42% of workers in the United States consider work to be too hot, while 56% of respondents say it is often cold in their work environment. Although technological advances allow us to control the temperature of a space with greater precision and change it at the touch of a button, the problem with common spaces is that it is more difficult to determine what this ideal temperature should be. In general, this high contrast of opinion is due to the fact that the calculation to determine the thermal comfort conditions of people is related to fairly outdated mathematical models, such as that defined by the ASHRAE 55 standard, one of the most common building codes used in America and also one of the oldest. As architects learn to calculate in college, the model for assessing the thermal comfort of a human being in a work environment is based on data about how a man in a suit and tie feels in his mechanically equipped office. The problem, in my opinion, is quite obvious, that not all workers are men, let alone that everyone wears a suit and tie every day. If we take into account how many of the female employees of a certain company dress in this way and how many of them are not men, obviously this calculation model proves to be defective and inconsistent.
Almost as important as comfort in terms of temperature, artificial lighting conditions also play an important role in making you feel good at work. In a recently published study, the American Interior Design Society revealed that more than 65% of workers are dissatisfied with the lighting conditions in their workspaces. It is a rather worrying statistic, especially since lighting has a significant impact on our productivity and not only, but also on our physical and mental health. While the lights emitted by our computer screens are usually very strong and exhausting to our eyes, some other light sources can directly affect the circadian rhythm of our body, affecting sleep or stimulating our metabolism. Some designers prefer “warmer” or “cooler” light tones. The fact is that the lighting conditions in our living spaces have a decisive influence on how we feel and, consequently, how we interact.
So what does the future hold for us? Will we ever stop arguing about the temperature in the office or when to turn on the lights and close the curtains? The answer to these questions seems to be yes. As more researchers study the ways in which design influences the well-being, happiness, and productivity of people in the workplace, it seems that we are finally approaching that long-awaited consensus. Technological advances also allow us to create more flexible environments in terms of temperature, allowing individuals to adapt more easily to the specific characteristics of each job. Also, lighting design has gone from being an eccentric exaggeration to a fundamental need, and more and more professionals decide to dedicate themselves to this line of research and design, collaborating in setting new comfort standards and creating more welcoming conditions. and stimulants. spaces. Looks like it’s just a matter of time.
This article is part of the ArchDaily Topic of the Month: Wellness in Indoors. Each month we explore a topic in depth through articles, interviews, news and plays. Learn more about our topics. And as always, at ArchDaily we appreciate the contributions of our readers. If you would like to submit an article or paper, please contact us.