Working on wellbeing
The layout, amount of light and temperature of an office have the biggest effect on workers’ mental health, a study found. Other elements such as colours, noise, ventilation and the amount of greenery have less effect but were still a factor.
Daan Kropman, Rianne Appel-Meulenbroek, Lisanne Bergefurt and Pascale LeBlanc
of Eindhoven University looked at 133 papers which studied the effects of physical workspaces on mental health. They said thinking over workplace design tends to focus on productivity more than mental health.
Their aim was to create an overview of potential effects of the physical office workspace on ten mental health indicators: burnout, engagement, depression, mood, fatigue, sleep, quality, wellbeing, concentration, productivity and stress.
Workspace factors they looked at included: light and daylight; office layout and design; temperature and thermal comfort; noise, acoustics and privacy; indoor air quality and ventilation; biophilia, greenery, views and plants; look, feel and colour.
Their report, published in the journal Ergonomics, stated: “Improvements in (day)light, layout design and thermal comfort have shown to contribute to many different mental health indicators.”
