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Greenspace as Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Essentialities in the Physical Environment

There is a scarcity of knowledge regarding the potential benefits of human–nature contact within the context of working life. Even more limited is the research that focuses on working outdoors and the setting in which it takes place. This study aimed to obtain insight into key aspects of the physica...

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Autores principales: Lygum, Victoria Linn, Dupret, Katia, Bentsen, Peter, Djernis, Dorthe, Grangaard, Sidse, Ladegaard, Yun, Troije, Charlotte Petersson
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10488277/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37681829
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20176689
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author Lygum, Victoria Linn
Dupret, Katia
Bentsen, Peter
Djernis, Dorthe
Grangaard, Sidse
Ladegaard, Yun
Troije, Charlotte Petersson
author_facet Lygum, Victoria Linn
Dupret, Katia
Bentsen, Peter
Djernis, Dorthe
Grangaard, Sidse
Ladegaard, Yun
Troije, Charlotte Petersson
author_sort Lygum, Victoria Linn
collection PubMed
description There is a scarcity of knowledge regarding the potential benefits of human–nature contact within the context of working life. Even more limited is the research that focuses on working outdoors and the setting in which it takes place. This study aimed to obtain insight into key aspects of the physical environment relevant for the experienced benefits and challenges of workers exploring office work outdoors. We conducted interviews with key informants as well as photo registration and mapping of the different green spaces in the environments of six small or medium-sized workplaces. The information gathered was used as background knowledge for exploratory qualitative interviews, which were conducted while walking in natural settings chosen by the interviewees. With a landscape architectural perspective and an inductive approach, we explored employees’ experiences of bringing office work outdoors. The following themes emerged: ‘Simplicity,’ ‘Safeness’, ‘Comfort’, and ‘Contact with Nature’ were experienced as key aspects in relation to the physical environment, whereas ‘Sociality’, ‘Well-being’, and ‘Functioning’ stood out as the main benefits and, ‘Digital dependency’ and ‘Illegitimacy’ as challenges to overcome. Based on the identification of potential benefits and their prerequisites, we propose implications for practice and research that can be useful when focusing on bringing office work outdoors.
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spelling pubmed-104882772023-09-09 Greenspace as Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Essentialities in the Physical Environment Lygum, Victoria Linn Dupret, Katia Bentsen, Peter Djernis, Dorthe Grangaard, Sidse Ladegaard, Yun Troije, Charlotte Petersson Int J Environ Res Public Health Article There is a scarcity of knowledge regarding the potential benefits of human–nature contact within the context of working life. Even more limited is the research that focuses on working outdoors and the setting in which it takes place. This study aimed to obtain insight into key aspects of the physical environment relevant for the experienced benefits and challenges of workers exploring office work outdoors. We conducted interviews with key informants as well as photo registration and mapping of the different green spaces in the environments of six small or medium-sized workplaces. The information gathered was used as background knowledge for exploratory qualitative interviews, which were conducted while walking in natural settings chosen by the interviewees. With a landscape architectural perspective and an inductive approach, we explored employees’ experiences of bringing office work outdoors. The following themes emerged: ‘Simplicity,’ ‘Safeness’, ‘Comfort’, and ‘Contact with Nature’ were experienced as key aspects in relation to the physical environment, whereas ‘Sociality’, ‘Well-being’, and ‘Functioning’ stood out as the main benefits and, ‘Digital dependency’ and ‘Illegitimacy’ as challenges to overcome. Based on the identification of potential benefits and their prerequisites, we propose implications for practice and research that can be useful when focusing on bringing office work outdoors. MDPI 2023-08-31 /pmc/articles/PMC10488277/ /pubmed/37681829 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20176689 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lygum, Victoria Linn
Dupret, Katia
Bentsen, Peter
Djernis, Dorthe
Grangaard, Sidse
Ladegaard, Yun
Troije, Charlotte Petersson
Greenspace as Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Essentialities in the Physical Environment
title Greenspace as Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Essentialities in the Physical Environment
title_full Greenspace as Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Essentialities in the Physical Environment
title_fullStr Greenspace as Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Essentialities in the Physical Environment
title_full_unstemmed Greenspace as Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Essentialities in the Physical Environment
title_short Greenspace as Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Essentialities in the Physical Environment
title_sort greenspace as workplace: benefits, challenges and essentialities in the physical environment
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10488277/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37681829
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20176689
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