No matter how comfortable and packed with amenities today’s workplaces may become, there’s still something special about being outside. Daylight, fresh air, consistent exercise and inspiring scenery can give a significant boost to office workers who might otherwise be stuck at a desk for most of the day. Now, because of COVID-19, there are likely to be long-standing challenges to working in traditional environments. The science is now showing that enclosed spaces with shared airflow are driving transmission more than use of shared surfaces. With these challenges in mind, there is no better time than now to figure out how to start working outside.
A year ago, we wrote about evolving trends in outdoor design. We are now on the cusp of a golden moment for the outdoor office. As work has become more mobile and connectivity has become more ubiquitous, it has become progressively more difficult to defend the status quo of the office. When science has demonstrated that circadian lighting improves performance and wellness, should we really be asking people to work without it? When some businesses are turning off their HVAC systems and asking people to open the windows because of COVID-19, can we really still say that air of a specific temperature is more important than air that is fresh?
Infrastructure requirements like networking access or specialized workstations are no longer the reason most people come to a workplace. Now, the principal benefit of the traditional office is control. The lighting is the same every day, rain or shine. The temperature, humidity and air quality do not vary. These systems are purportedly in place to support comfort for the average user. But in reality, no user is average, and many environments fall short of even this modest goal.
Environmental control also comes with a cost beyond the financial and ecological costs of heating, cooling and lighting large enclosed spaces. People are now ordinarily spending more than 90 percent of their time inside—in their workplaces, vehicles, homes, or elsewhere. This is at odds with most of human evolutionary history. It is a disconnect so profound that “nature deficit disorder” and “psychoterratica” have entered the lexicon to describe it.
To combat this self-imposed exile from the natural world—and the attendant stress and health effects—designers have turned to practices such as biophilic design, which incorporates elements of nature into the built environment. By increasing exposure to daylight, plant life, water and a variety of landscapes, this approach has been shown to be beneficial to both human health and workplace performance. We are big fans of biophilia, but why stop there? The real purpose of the workplace—to support collaborative work—may actually be served better when people go outside.