Sedentary and Fleeting Activities and Their Spatial Correlates in Offices

Abstract

In this study of the relationships between knowledge worker activities and office design, two sets of activities - generically termed as fleeting and sedentary activities - are considered. Fleeting activities include walking (or movement), face-to-face interactions, and visible copresence (i.e., the number of people seen from a space or position). Sedentary activities include meeting, working on computer, talking on telephone, talking, writing, reading, paper handling, and pausing.

We observe these activities in a moderately large landscaped office using two different methods. One is the Time Utilization Survey (TUS) method where the field observer observes both sedentary and fleeting activities from a set of points on a predefined route. The other is the “space syntax” method where the observer observes fleeting activities as she walks along an observation route.

We investigate if the sedentary activities in well-defined spaces would have the same spatial predictors as the fleeting activities in ill-defined spaces. For this, we use two sets of spatial descriptors: One set includes integration and connectivity of spaces in a layout computed using the axial map analysis techniques of “space syntax”. The other set includes degree and closeness of individual workspaces in the network of visibility computed using the network analysis techniques. Our study shows that the fleeting activities are better predicted by integration and connectivity, while the sedentary activities are better predicted by degree and closeness. This finding is important for it suggests that we may need different spatial strategies to influence fleeting and sedentary activities in offices.