Place matters, The Places you go….

Whether it’s at work, at school, in a hospital, or even in a shop, we find ourselves in environments that we haven’t designed ourselves.  In the paragraphs that follow, we’ll explore why and how the design of these spaces influences how we think and behave.

Workplaces

Unfortunately for most of us, we haven’t inherited a fortune or won the lottery, so off to work we must go.  Until the pandemic, many of us spent our working time toiling outside our home, but the easing of the pandemic for most means that we’re now returning to work in out-of-the-home offices and it seems likely that those of us who haven’t started to spend many of our working hours at our company offices will start to do so again soon.

So, what’s up with workplace design?  How do people familiar with the science that can and should inform the development of physical environments where we spend so many hours toiling away actually put all that research to work?

It’s important to know that very little that you find in the offices where you go to work has found its way there by chance.  Professionals creating workplaces have been familiar with environmental psychology for years now and many try to apply its tenets, and do so to the extent that they are familiar with related research.  Oodles of workplace design and management professionals know that workplaces where we work to (and sometimes beyond) our full potential and live pleasant lives while doing so allow us to achieve our three core objectives as humans (as detailed in self-determination theory): to do well whatever we’re up to (whether that’s a physics experiment or writing a new concerto for the cello), have some control over our life experiences, and spend time with the other people we select to be with when we wish to do so.

It’s also important to remember that workplaces are, alas, places for working.  People familiar with the science of how human brains work don’t try to create workplaces where people play or do things that are, simply, fun.  They develop spaces where people do the best work of their lives and live pleasant lives while doing just that.  In the next few articles we will be exploring how to design with “working” and focus in mind. There are some oddities, revelations and some excellent ‘go-to’ tips for anyone creating spaces for people to work in.