Co-Designing for Wellbeing in the Hybrid Smart Workplace

This work involves the building occupants of a smart building during a period of hybrid working, with the purpose of co-designing data-rich workplaces that support wellbeing. Through the design of a custom card-kit based on PROWELL Model of Workplace Wellbeing Assessment, this work provides insights from an online 90 min co-design workshop with six building occupants utilizing the card-kit to speculate on the design of data-driven physical interventions that support workplace wellbeing. Transcript data from the video-recorded workshop were thematically analyzed, producing findings namely framing novel socio-technical dimensions for biophilic and biomimetic designs in the built environment. Contributing to discourses on Human-Building Interaction (HBI) research, findings were synthesized into a design agenda and considerations for supporting wellbeing in the hybrid workplace that utilizes physical feedback and passive sensing. Composed under the premise of co-creating smart environments together with their occupants, the proposed agenda highlights areas of critical research interest for HBI, Biophilic Design and Soft Robotics in the built environment.