Space Design for the ACITC Educational Technology Office Area Using a Workplace Neighborhood Concept

Today, the workplace is undergoing dramatic changes, featuring increased team activities and informal interactions. The work place neighborhood is a design concept derived from a city planning theory that may solve the workplace design problems arising from these changes, and provided a focus for this project.

The Educational Technology office area of the Advanced Communication and Information Technology Center (ACITC) possesses the features representing the general workplace tendency today. The purpose of this project was to develop a workplace neighborhood space prototype for this office area. This prototype will provide a work environment conducive to team efforts and informal interactions and a workplace neighborhood space model for future reference.

The project had three design phases: design programming, design development, and design evaluation and revision. During the design programming, a survey questionnaire was distributed to all of the 12 Educational Technology employees and behavioral mapping observations were conducted. Then, a conceptual plan, a series of workplace space patterns and a floor plan were developed for the workplace neighborhood space prototype. Finally, computer models were prepared for three neighborhood units for design evaluation.

The result of the design evaluation indicated that the concerns between individual and group work spaces were not solved. The space prototype was revised, and a computer model of the revised space prototype was prepared. The revised space prototype met the work patterns of the employees more closely and reflected the design concept of workplace neighborhood more clearly