Office Environment Design: An Assessment of Efficiency

Abstract

This Technical Communication reviews the results of several research studies with respect to the attitudes of office users toward the 'landscaped', open office concept, or Burolandschaft, and advances a general conclusion concerning the functional efficiency of landscaped offices. It is generally concluded that 'space planning' for complex office environments requires an integrated, total system approach in which specification of user requirements and performance criteria is given first and high priority. It is also concluded that the claims of the landscaped office protagonists for office productivity have not been substantiated. The landscaped office looks better but is judged to function no better than conventional offices. The data reviewed in this Communication strongly suggest that the implementation of landscaped office environments will result in loss of visual and acoustic privacy, particularly with respect to employees engaged in complex cognitive tasks.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 1979
Accession Number
ADA080398

Entities

People

  • E. L. Gorrell

Organizations

  • DRDC Toronto

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Complex Systems
  • Efficiency
  • Environment
  • Information Processing
  • Maintenance Costs
  • Management Personnel
  • National Security
  • Office Personnel
  • Performance Engineering
  • Personnel Management
  • Productivity
  • Questionnaires
  • Social Psychology
  • Specifications
  • Speech
  • Systems Approach
  • Task Performance And Analysis

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Marine Ecological Systems Migration
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Space