Routledge Handbook of High-Performance Workplaces

This timely book focuses on an overview of the fundamentals behind high-performance workplaces underpinning occupants’ satisfaction, health, and productivity. To this end, it covers human, environmental, and organisational aspects proven to be of great relevance to the design of high-performance workplaces. Perhaps most significantly it looks at these characteristics both before and after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From the exodus from private offices to the rise of open-plan workplaces, where, how and when people work was changing rapidly pre-COVID. Post-COVID, pandemic-imposed restrictions banished workers from offices into their homes fast, leaving organisation scrambling to keep workers functioning away from HQ. After the immediate shockwaves set by the pandemic, workers and organisations have had the time to learn about positives and negative aspects of remote working with the vast majority now questioning the need to go back to HQ and the purpose of offices. In this book, the contributors share and discuss lessons learned from research conducted in workplaces pre- and post-2020 with a view of providing a clear picture about what high-performance workplaces are about, including the key drivers behind workers’ satisfaction, health, and productivity. This handbook builds on a programme of applied research conducted in workplaces led by the editors over the last decade which is aimed at understanding the synergies between the design, performance, and experience of spaces. It examines ergonomics, biophilic design, acoustics, indoor air quality, thermal comfort, diversity, leadership, psychological safety, culture, and much more.

Research findings are presented side-by-side with case studies selected from the research database led by the editors. Industry experts add to the academic voice, reinforcing the authenticity of this book and its relevance to other stakeholders found outside the academic arena, including the property and design industry, students, government, and the community in general.

Christhina Candido is an architect with a PhD in Civil Engineering from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil) and in Environmental Science from Macquarie University (Australia). Her expertise and track-record features research in the fields of Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE), Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), workspace design and climate responsive design in tropical and subtropical climates. She directs the SHE (Sustainable and Healthy Environments) Lab, which develops a program of applied research aimed at understanding how the built environment can improve sustainability and health through the design of high-performance spaces.

Iva Durakovic is a lecturer and interior architect, holding a Bachelor of Interior Architecture Hons (Class 1) from the University of New South Wales, with over 10 years’ experience working on high-profile, award-winning workplace design projects. Her research focuses on behavioural impacts and phenomenology of high-performance workplaces, evaluating the environments and their cultures to understand the human factors at play across individual, physical and organisational levels, particularly within emergent post 2020 workplace contexts.

Samin Marzban is an architect by training and holds a PhD in Built Environment from The University of New South Wales, Sydney. Her research focuses on Indoor Environmental Quality, with a particular focus on Post-Occupancy Evaluation and workspace well-being. She is also interested and skilled in multi-disciplinary building-related research including performance-based design, optimization, and energy efficiency. She is a Postdoctoral Research Associate funded by the ARC Discovery scheme.