Creating Emotionally Intelligent Workspaces

Edward Finch is a freelance ‘thought leadership’ author. He obtained his PhD from the University of Reading in 1989 and was Professor in Facilities Management at Salford University (2008–2011). He acted as Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal Facilities for 15 years. His writing challenges technological myopia in the workplace, suggesting that we also need to understand what it means to be human.Guillermo Aranda-Mena is Associate Professor at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, and Visiting Professor of Architecture at Politecnico di Milano, UNESCO Chair in Mantua. In 2003 he completed his PhD at the University of Reading and has since collaborated with numerous universities around the world. He continues to travel widely and divides his time between Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico, Italy and Melbourne, where he currently resides with his partner Dee and son Memo.

• Table of contentsContentsChapter 1: Introduction Leveraging the power of emotion What do we mean by emotional intelligence? Feelings or emotions? From ‘know-how’ to ‘know who’ Summary Chapter 2: Understanding emotions in the workplace The ABC of the human mind Emotion in stages Types of emotion Positive psychology Emotions in practice Emotion, mood and temperament Emotion and the environment Summary Chapter 3: Can a workspace motivate us? Form follows function Form follows emotion Evolution of the office What makes people tick? Maslow’s hierarchy of needs Physiological needs Safety needs Affiliation and belongingness needs Status and esteem needs Self-actualisation Criticisms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs ERG Theory Summary Chapter 4: The many faces of the Intelligent Building The death of permanence Layers within layers The emergence of the intelligent building (IB) The High-Tech Building The Flexible Building The Interoperable Building The Green Building The Arrival of the ‘Sentient Building’ On collision Emotion detection Summary References Chapter 5: The Emotionally Intelligent Building Defining emotional intelligence Can a workspace have emotional intelligence? Ability Model Mixed models Defining the Emotionally Intelligent Workplace Making sense of it all The Three Dimensions of Workspaces The green bus Putting the pieces together Emotional Mechanisms Creating the emotional palette An emotionally intelligent work setting Summary Chapter 6: Emotion and the instrumental workspace Understanding the instrumental perspective The non-territorial office Laying down the law Fitting the person to the workplace User-centred design Nomad or vagrant? Replacing physical walls with psychological walls The emergence of Activity Based Working (ABW) The truly territorial office Behaviour Change Nudge SummaryChapter 7: Emotion and the aesthetic workspace Being there Aesthetics and the senses Aesthetics and emotions Biophilia and Biomorphic design Fractals Neuroaesthetics and Neuroarchitecture Summary Chapter 8: Emotion and the symbolic workspace What is a symbol? Symbolism and the organisation The production of space Workplace Identity Liminal space Investigating a ‘crime scene’ Enclosures The IKEA Affect Our Biological Wi-Fi High-trust culture Temperament SummaryChapter 9: Conclusions Reflections