Outdoor workplaces: new trend that could be ideal for South Africa

What would you prefer? Working in a more natural or outdoor workplace or sitting in an office all day under artificial lighting, breathing artificially cleaned air?

South Africa has one of the world’s best climates and our workspaces could soon follow the global trend of working more outdoors.

Working outdoors can benefit your health and productivity and is also more sustainable, while it brings you closer to nature. The ‘biophilic’ workplace concept is an approach in design that aims to increase the connection of building occupants with the natural environment, explains Linda Trim, director at Giant Leap, a workplace design consultancy.

“Using elements such as natural lighting, ventilation, natural landscapes and space conditions, buildings serve as the bridge allowing people to connect with nature while they are indoors, but it goes increasingly further than bringing the outdoors in: people are actually working outside.”

Trim says she thinks more South African companies will increasingly adopt this popular global trend as direct contact with greenery is the most straightforward and widely used method of fostering that human-and-nature connection.”

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Indoor forest in the office?

Anthony Karam, Giant Leap’s head of design, says the company recently completed a design brief for a leading international business process outsourcing company that wanted an indoor forest and marketplace to connect the inner-city workspace to a natural feeling space for employees to break away, engage and socialise between calls.

Trim says for interiors and exteriors the presence of vegetation, water features, gardens and green walls are fundamental for workers to reap the benefits of proximity to nature. Additionally, natural materials, such as wood and stone add to the overall natural feel.

“The feeling of relaxation and respite in these green environments and blue spaces are known to reduce stress, lower blood pressure and heart rate, enhance mood and calm and prompt healing,“

Creating a network of usable outdoor spaces that are hyper-specific to surrounding microclimates in South Africa can introduce novel ways of working in the workplace that cannot be replicated at home or in traditional office buildings.

“Consider the direct connections to the static nature of a potted plant or the dynamic nature of a light breeze which have been shown to increase focus as well as provide overall cognitive benefits to the humans.”

These outdoor offices work through an accommodating relationship between the building and the user. Trim says passive techniques, such as shade and natural ventilation, enable the building to help regulate the comfort level of employees while they ensure their personal comfort in the form of what they wear.

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Working in a virtual landscape

“In our burgeoning virtual landscape, embracing the physical, analogue space around us is more important than ever. In this sense, claiming personal agency not only allows each of us to create more nimble and optimal working conditions but also scratches that very human itch of being present in the space we inhabit.”

She says a good example is the Arts District project in Los Angeles, where approximately 20% of its office areas are located outside, with sliding indoor/outdoor connections.

“The design takes full advantage of the Southern California climate, where it is sunny 75% of the year with an average temperature in the 20s – much like South Africa. These office areas are open or partially shaded outdoor with vegetation or covered outdoor areas, with large controllable openings to the interior.”

Another example is a courtyard shaded by a photovoltaic array which provides approximately 20% of building energy while shading much of the green office spaces. Movable shades and misters can be used in the summer and in winter, hats, scarves and puffer jackets are once again essential fashion accessories in the biophilic workplace if people still prefer to work outdoors as many will.

“Incorporating biophilic design principles into workplace environments can have far-reaching benefits for individuals and the planet. Every workplace has its own microclimate and work culture. The biophilic workplace components remain the same, but the proportion of use can be calibrated to local conditions.”