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A design study looking at ways in which workplace designers can help reduce levels of heart disease in the UK.
Every two minutes someone somewhere in the UK has a heart attack - and half of all heart attacks are fatal. In fact, one in four deaths in men and one in five deaths in women in the UK can be attributed to Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). Better workplace design could reduce this toll, but making health factors more explicit in the office planning process has been hindered by lack of information. This study, part of the British Heart Foundation’s Workplace Health Programme, consulted both architectural and occupational health experts to define direct ways in which the office designer can affect factors contributing to CHD such as levels of stress, exercise, well-being and quality of diet at work.
Research uncovered a high degree of health awareness among designers, but also the pressing need to ‘flag up’ the issue to clients before real change can occur. A communication initiative was developed to enable office designers to encourage building clients to include health factors in their briefing documents. The campaign centres on heartfriendlyoffice.org - an internet-based resource that enables users to cut, paste and pass on relevant information to everyone in the office design-and-build chain. The website also provides a series of best practice case studies; these highlight their health and financial implications alongside advice on instigating feedback so that office designers may collate a bank of information on the health impacts of their own work.
