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Productivity: The case for au natural offices

Co-working space Seedworks in Hamilton, Ont., courtesy of David Premi Architects Inc. (David Premi Architects Inc.)

When David Premi was looking to design and build his Hamilton co-working space Seedworks, he bought a 125-year-old buggy whips factory with floor-to-ceiling windows.

“The walls are almost entirely glass – huge expanses of window – with small brick tiers in between them because, of course, there was no electric light back then and they had to have natural light to operate,” Premi, whose firm David Premi Architects Inc. focuses on sustainability and urban renewal, he tells Yahoo Canada Finance. “We can work without any electric lights in here, on bright days we turn them all off, and it’s just lovely.”

Premi’s co-working space capitalizes on a growing push towards making office spaces as natural as possible. A recent report called Human Spaces – which examines the global impact of biophilic, natural and environment-conscious design – found that employees working in environments with natural elements have a 15 per cent higher level of well being, are 6 per cent more productive and 15 per cent more creative.

“I think we fell in love as a culture with the technology and the innovation of electric lights and steel frame buildings and artificial, mechanical systems ventilation systems,” he says. “When you look back at it you’re like what were we thinking?”

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He still butts heads from time to time with clients, specifically institutional ones, who refuse to have operable windows.

“They have this impression that if the employees open the windows it becomes chaotic and uncontrollable and the mechanical ventilation wont work as efficiently,” he says.

It’s an opinion still held by many businesses with the survey of 7,600 global office workers finding nearly half (47 per cent) have no natural light and 58 per cent don’t have live plants in their workspace. In Canada the numbers are slightly lower than the global average with 32 per cent of office workers saying they have no windows.

But it’s changing, notes Premi, with features like green walls becoming more commonplace requests.

“There’s a lot of value to natural elements – but I think it has to be more formally designed, a part of the overall design process, than just saying let’s get a bunch of potted plants,” says the architect.

In addition to natural light and greenery, the Human Spaces report found that 19 per cent say a quiet working space is the most desired attribute, 17 per cent say a view of the sea and 15 per cent say bright colours.

“All these sorts of things create what’s called a good indoor environmental quality but it’s more than that,” says Premi. “Now when we design offices we’re thinking about how you can provide a diversity of working opportunities.”

He points to elements like standing or adjustable desks and a variety of rooms or spaces to work in.

“Everyone learns and works differently and when you give them the opportunity to customize their environment a little bit they can create a condition that helps them work more efficiently and focus more clearly,” he says.

It’s an intuitive approach to design that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

“It’s just a manifestation of our culture; our culture and the current generations are starting to acknowledge that people are not as homogeneous as we liked to believe 50 years ago,” says Premi. “You have to create an environment where people can find their own way.”