Posted by Today, the workplace has gelled into a mix of grey office buildings and nature. We’ve discovered the value in nature and natural sunlight to productivity. People absorb Vitamin D through the skin and eyes. Where there’s a health benefit, there’re savings for the company in lost time and insurance coverage. So, commercial landscaping and outdoor furnishing companies have taken advantage of the new niche.
Outdoor Work space Designing Niche
They specialize in this design. Each company has to adapt to the environment that they design the outdoor work space for. For instance, weather and wear and tear are two of the greatest concerns next to durability. There are dozens of people at one time using the furniture for eight or more hours a day, five days per week.
Some of those design plans can include covered, open-air patios with operational work stations. Other outdoor designs can sprawl terraces on multi-floor structures. While other spaces are on the roof of buildings that house vegetable gardens and atrium.
They make great spaces to move the body in the great outdoors. Some companies have taken advantage of this too. Lunch and learn yoga breaks and stress reduction classes. This ensures increased focus and concentration hence, happier and more engaged employees.
What can it all look like?
With all the above creative commercial landscaping, imagine the transformation. Instead of employees that are cooped up in cubicles with stale air who focus and concentrate as well as a tse-tse fly, you have the direct opposite. Employees with incredible focus and concentration whose nervous systems, brain and immunity are stronger than ever. They no longer call in sick because they have stress attributed to a dull and depressing environment.
The Science that Backs it:
Mellon University did a controlled study that found the productivity to be lowered 23% in workers who received text messages during work time. In a natural environment, productivity is much higher. The noise from distractions in a cramped space is extremely unhealthy. Cubicles in an open-plan office are very distracting and a closed, private office is too prison-like. So the outdoor custom design is the panacea of the working world.
Creativity in Outdoor Work space Designing
Fresh air and sunshine along with giving the employee the ability to walk around, bend, stretch and move will signal the brain that it’s safe to create! Creativity isn’t just for artists. It’s the lifeblood of all successful companies, large and small.
Who do you need to create outdoor work spaces?
There are a few different skills needed for the outdoor work space team. They’ll need commercial landscaping companies and actual 3D designers. They create most of the jobs in a computerized 3D program. The company will secure building contractors and electrical engineers. They do each part in layers until completed. Then secure the legal building permits first and then inspections.
There’s a lot of time, money and energy that goes into the outdoor work space. But nothing compared to the millions of dollars companies lose in productivity because of mental, emotional and physical illness of their employees.
This is the reason that this trend is as hot as it is now. Back in the day, at the Genesis of the movement to bring the outdoors into the grey structures, the idea was catching on. A select few companies installed skylights and peppered the offices with oxygen making trees. Today, we’ve changed the landscape of the workforce forever.