Purpose

There has been limited investigation into how “biophilic design” (i.e. the integration of nature within the built environment) can be effectively used within the workplace to facilitate the process of psychological restoration. The purpose of this study was to focus, in particular, on the effectiveness of biophilic “restoration pods” in promoting recovery from stress.

Design/methodology/approach

A randomised field experiment was conducted. A total of 32 employees from a participating organisation completed two tests replicating typical office work (proofreading and arithmetic) and subjective ratings of stress, anxiety and task-load both before and after a 10-minute micro-break, taken in either the regeneration pods (treatment group) or an ordinary meeting room (control group).

Findings

The results showed that participants who took their break in the regeneration pod reported lower post-break anxiety and perceived task-load, and higher post-break arithmetic task performance, than the control group.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that purpose-built spaces for restoration within office buildings will be effective for helping employees to proactively manage their stress levels while at work. Biophilic design principles will enhance the effectiveness of these spaces, and this does not necessarily need to involve direct exposure to plants or views of nature.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first randomised field experiment to test the effectiveness of a purpose-built space for restoration within offices. Additionally, this paper explores different forms of biophilic design than previous studies.

中文翻译：

---

一项随机的野外实验，以测试专用的亲生“再生豆荚”的修复特性

目的

对于如何在工作场所内有效使用“亲生物设计”（即自然环境与建筑环境的整合）以促进心理恢复的过程，研究还很有限。这项研究的目的是特别关注亲生物“修复豆荚”在促进从压力中恢复的有效性。

设计/方法/方法

进行了随机现场实验。参与组织的32名员工完成了两次测试，这些测试重复了典型的办公室工作（校对和算术），并在10分钟的微小休息前后对主观压力，焦虑和任务负荷进行了评估，并在再生吊舱中进行了测试（治疗组）或普通会议室（对照组）。

发现

结果显示，与对照组相比，在再生豆荚中休息的参与者报告的休息后焦虑和感知的工作量较低，并且休息后的算术任务性能较高。

实际影响

研究结果表明，办公楼内专用的专用恢复空间将有效地帮助员工在工作中主动管理压力水平。亲生物的设计原理将增强这些空间的有效性，并且不一定需要直接暴露于植物或自然风光中。

创意/价值

据作者所知，这是第一个随机的野外实验，用于测试专用空间用于办公室内部恢复的有效性。此外，本文探索了与以往研究不同的亲生物设计形式。