If we spend most of our time indoors, it is vital to bring nature and well-being to our closed spaces. This is even more crucial today, when so many around the world are at home spending time indoors due to global spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In a very short time, our everyday routine has been turned upside down. What we considered as a normal way of living suddenly changed, and we are now learning how to manage a variety of tasks from home while trying to maintain positive well-being for ourselves and loved ones. Many people are discovering how to use new technologies and tools that enable companies to continue working, students to continue learning and friends to meet online.
For those of us switching to home offices on short notice, creating an appropriate workspace hasn’t necessarily been easy. We don’t always have the space, ergonomic chairs or desk and other things that make an office comfortable. One way to improve comfort in our new workplaces is bringing nature indoors and arranging home offices in a healthy and ergonomic way.
InnoRenew CoE researchers are dedicated to improving the built environment to provide health benefits for occupants. Part of their work is exploring the science of human interactions with the built environment and providing evidence-based design guidance to designers. This is one of InnoRenew CoE’s key research areas: REED – restorative environmental and ergonomic design. Researchers are enthusiastic about restorative and regenerative design systems, emphasizing the use of natural materials to create ergonomic, accessible, adaptable, and sustainable buildings that achieve environmental sustainability and human comfort goals.
