Workplaces are where we spend most of our time doing what we love. The latter was a jest, so, imagine instead being stuck at a desk scrolling through your laptop, trying to finish all the work you’ve been putting off for the past several days add to that a desk that is too small and walls that are too close for comfort. It’s a challenge! However, there is a solution: add more green to your workspace. After all, plants foster a more tranquil and colorful aura, so that when you’re contemplating telling your boss exactly how you feel, a beautiful plant comes to your rescue. Interior designers are now concentrating on ways to make offices more visually appealing and integral for a healthy environment improving efficiency by playing a role in bettering employees’ mental health. Therefore, we spoke with the associate professor at Cairo’s British University (BUE) Dr. Gehan Nagy, with a Ph.D. in the ‘Biological and psychological consequences of the built environment’, to learn more about the effects and benefits of an office gone green.
Design in the post-pandemic era
As more employers seek designers who can help them create a healthier workplace, this trend is expected to continue. Dr. Nagy mentioned the term “biophilia,” which basically means that we, as humans, have a natural desire to engage with or be closely associated with the outdoors and nature. To put it in another way, this is something we were born with all along and interior designers are taking biophilia into consideration when designing new offices. Yes, turns out…we were not made to be caged in cubbies after all. Dr. Nagy emphasized that offices are now attempting to reconnect with nature through the use of plants and improved air filtering systems, as well as the use of more environmentally friendly materials. It’s not even offices anymore, but also buildings and apartments that are going back to nature in an attempt to connect with plants and green!
Poison Ivy paid your office a visit?
There are immense benefits to going green, surrounding ourselves with nature distances some of the harm that technology causes. Dr. Nagy claimed that surrounding your office with plants can reduce stress levels amongst employees as well as limit the number of electromagnetic waves that are produced through the existence of technology all around offices. Not only that but also the efficiency of the workers tend to increase based on research conducted by Dr. Nagy.
It is essential to create a space within the office that fosters and integrates nature in it. This helps employees to relax and become more efficient with lower stress levels. Dr. Nagy’s insights showed how important and efficient it would be for offices to redesign in a way that reconnects with the outdoors and fosters a healthy environment.