| id |
ddss9503 |
| authors |
Wineman, Jean and Serrato, Margaret |
| year |
1994 |
| title |
Visual and Spatial Analysis in Office Design |
| source |
Second Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture & Urban Planning (Vaals, the Netherlands), August 15-19, 1994 |
| summary |
The demands for rapid response to complex problems, flexibility, and other characteristics of today's workplace, such as a highly trained work force, have led many organizations to move from strict hierarchical structures to a more flexible project team organization. The organizational structure is broader and flatter, with greater independence given to organizational units, in this case the project teams. To understand the relationship between project team communication patterns and the design and layout of team space, a study was conducted of an architectural office before and after a move to new space. The study involved three project teams. Information was collected on individual communication patterns; perceptions of the ease of communication; and the effectiveness of the design and layout of physical space to support these communications. In order to provide guidance for critical decision-making in design, these communication data were correlated with a series of measures for the specification of team space enclosure and layout. These group/team space measures were adaptations of existing measures of individual work space, and included an enclosure measure, based on an enclosure measure developed by Stokols (1990); a measure of visual field, based on the "isovist" fields of Benedikt (1979); and an "integration" measure, based on the work of Hillier and Hanson (1984). Results indicate both linear and non-linear relationships between interaction patterns and physical space measures. This work is the initial stage of a research program to define a set of specific physical measures to guide the design of supportive work space for project teams and work groups within various types of organizations. |
| series |
DDSS |
| email |
|
| references |
Content-type: text/plain
|
| last changed |
2003/08/07 16:36 |
|
