Jun Munakata

Causal Modeling Between Workplace Productivity and Workers′ Satisfaction with Various Spaces in Office Buildings

Office workers′ productivity might be affected by their satisfaction with not only their own workplace but also meeting area, break area and accessory spaces in and around the building. This paper investigates the relation between workers′ subjective productivity and satisfaction with those spaces, statistically analyzing the data collected by the SAP that is a subjective productivity assessment system developed in Japan. Applying a statistical causality analysis to the data of 228 offices, it was revealed that, in addition to satisfactions with environmental factors in an office, satisfaction and frequency of use in other spaces considerably affect workers′ easiness of four types of behavior, focusing, relaxing, communicating, and creative activity, which finally influence productivity in a building. This finding supports the significance of extending the questions from office to overall building in the SAP system.

Physical Element Effects in Public Space Attendance

This paper seeks to determine which physical elements of privately owned public spaces affect users′ impressions, which characteristics of these elements are noticed, and what impressions they cause. The study is based on a caption evaluation and semantic differential survey of 12 public spaces in the center of Tokyo. Ten participants were surveyed for each space, and 1494 of the obtained entries were analyzed. The semantic differential survey was then cross-referenced with density measures to evaluate the effect of physical elements′ densities on participants′ impressions. It was found that the physical elements that caught users′ attention were greenery, street furniture, the building, the sidewalk and the space itself. From all of the elements, tree coverage density was the best predictor of desire to stay and rest activities in the space. A logistic regression analysis of each activity by tree density is also provided.

Seat Choice and Distance Judgment in Public Spaces

This research assessed whether public space users will adopt a least-effort approach and choose a less suitable seat nearby or seek the most suitable seat, even if it is farther away from them when the decision is made. How distance assessment affects seat choice was investigated through an observational survey, which allowed the identification of behavioral patterns. Those behavioral patterns were then tested in a paired comparison experiment with 40 participants. The results showed that the effect of distance on seat choice is related to the difference in distance between the options and that a sufficient difference can cause trade-offs between distance and seat properties. The necessary difference in distance is conditioned by the activity and the seat properties.

A STUDY ON THE FACTORS OF SENSES OF PHYSICAL OPPRESSION AND OPENNESS ON RESIDENTIAL STREET FRONTS USING STRUCTURED EVALUATION DIAGRAMS

This study aims to ascertain the primary factors of the senses of physical oppression and openness and to clarify the relationship between those two senses. For that, the two senses were evaluated by inhabitants regarding the streets their homes front in the Sangenjaya, Setagawa-ku area of Tokyo. The results are as follows. First, the correlation between the two senses is -0.63 and there is general recognition that the two senses are contrary to each other. The positive correlation between the sense of physical oppression and dissatisfaction itself can be seen and the both increase or decrease together. However, the sense of openness and dissatisfaction itself do not guarantee the same correlation. Second, the sense of physical oppression is mainly influenced by forms of street and architecture and is especially dependent on the form of architecture. The influence on the sense of openness is divided evenly into three elements: the street, traffic, and architecture. Third, natural objects, scenery, and environmental elements also increase the sense of openness while electronic poles and wires along with advertising and sign boards influence the increasing sense of physical oppression. Finally, the two senses are directly influenced from the elements on the entire streetscape but the sense of physical oppression is affected relatively more from the relationships between the elements than is the sense of openness.