Against a workplace contagion: a digital approach to support hygiene-conscious office space planning
Authors: Mekawy Mohammed , Gabr Mostafa A. 
Published: September 2021

Purpose

This research presents a multi-objective optimization approach to integrate spatial planning measures in open-plan office environments in order to lower the risk of a workplace contagion. These measures were gathered, formalized, parameterized, and coded and integrated into a digital tool.

Design/methodology/approach

To demonstrate the research's approach, a simple design problem was designed, explored, and the results were evaluated. The researchers assumed an empty open office space, with the windows and doors (as exits and/or as access to amenities) already in place (Figure 1). The aim is to optimize the space planning, with the following objectives in mind: maximize the number of employees in a floor while maintaining physical distancing recommendations for avoiding infections; no face-to-face or back-to-back seating positions are allowed; maximize physical access to windows for natural ventilation; minimizing areas with potential “congestions” in the space, i.e. areas susceptible to overlapping foot traffic from numerous employees, which increases the potential for close encounters and minimizing the travel distance from the employee's desk to all neighbouring desks, hence reducing the foot traffic in the space. In the experiment, the following was assumed: the workspace layout is rectangular, the workstation desks are rectangular, the seating area, windows, and access to exits and amenities are well-defined.

Findings

It was found that configurations with desks parallel to the longer side of the space provided more employee capacity; however, they usually performed poorer in terms of the buzz score. On the other hand, configurations with desks perpendicular to the longer side of the space had, on average, better buzz scores, usually at the cost of the reduction of the number of potential employees. There was however one alternative in the latter set of configurations, which achieved above-average buzz and adjacency scores, and the potential to accommodate 56 employees, one of the highest capacities for employees in the solution space (the highest being 60). Designers could explore the design space further to make sure it complies with these basic spatial rules for mitigating the spread of infections, while experimenting with the workspace layout.

Research limitations/implications

It is important to note that in order for a designer to handle any given design problem even with the aid of a computer system, it is important to provide a set of initial conditions and assumptions and a set of variables. In the universe of all possible variables, the designer can pick a number of variations of the initial conditions and run parallel experiments to compare their outcomes. In the experiment demonstrated here the following was assumed. The workspace layout is rectangular with predefined entrances/exits. Free flow of employees is allowed. No pre-set one-way paths. The workstation desks are rectangular. The seating area windows and access to amenities are well-defined.

Originality/value

This research presented a digital optimization approach to enhance the spatial planning process in open-plan office spaces, with the aim of mitigating the risks of infectious diseases' transmission. Spatial design considerations were gathered from literature and formalized as design objectives and constraints, then further parameterized and represented as numerical values and scores for objective evaluation. The design parameters, constraints and calculations to derive the scores for the designated design objectives were coded into a digital tool that can receive a building information model (BIM) model of an office space and provide preliminary furniture plans using a multi-objective optimization (MOO) approach. It is obvious that the furniture layouts that can be considered “acceptable”, based on this approach, are not considered “ready-to-implement” solutions, because designers need to integrate a multitude of other design factors in their design. This approach can still, however, be useful to help the designer integrate spatial considerations for slowing down a contagion.