The new working environment: environmental diversity and flexibility of space

Abstract

The environmental impact, comfort and health issues of the glass-box building inspired, in the beginning of the decade of 1990, new architectural paradigms for the office building. However,  considerations to natural ventilation and daylight were already present in the iconic buildings from the first decade of the  modernism in Brazil and abroad.  But it was only since the last decades of the 20th century that the acknowledgement of the effects of more informal environments upon the productivity and satisfaction of the occupants led to the insertion of transitional spaces in the design of office buildings. These architectural changes are part of a more flexible notion of environmental comfort. Parallel to that, the evolution of information technology, added to the appearance of the knowledge economy, introduced new trends to the occupation patterns and routines in the working environment that value spaces qualified by vegetation, informal areas, visual communication between interior and exterior and daylight, resulting in interior spaces more opened to the exterior. This critical review of theories and case-studies  suggests a  working environment in which spaces such as balconies and gardens are added to interior spaces and become spaces to the diversity that constitute new offices of the XXI century.