No one likes working in a tiny office space within a four-walled office that’s devoid of any colour, windows, or any life really. When movie makers assume creating an environment that’s oppressive, you’ll probably see an area where grey is the new black, the ceilings are low, the air conditioning causes tinnitus, and everyone looks exactly similar. When you transform that into the real world, you’ll get a tiny cubicle in an office without windows. How would an office space design (or an absence of it) of this type affect your employees?
The Wall Street Journal announced a report that supports the claim that design and architecture do really affect your feeling, your thinking patterns, including your health. It seems that those who worked in an older establishment had higher anxiety levels -even when they weren’t working! In 2009, the University of British Columbia assessed 600 subjects on how the colour of a background affects their output on a string of mental activities. Subjects in the red environment were more precise (they fared more effectively at retaining random numbers in short-term memory) and receptive (they noticed more spelling errors). Subjects in the blue workspace on the other hand failed with their short-term memory tasks but impressed with activities that involved resourceful thinking like designing a children’s toy.
