At other places
Work, school and home are typically the indoor places where we spend the majority of our time. Yet, there are other places we go and visit — whether regularly, occasionally or unexpectedly. Every place means different conditions and demands for the climate.
On the go, out & about or between spaces?
We have evolved and so do our needs, wants, wishes and requirements. Only from about the 18th century, we have gone from 90% of people working outside to less than 20% of us working outdoors. We seek shelter and good indoor spaces for our health and well-being - and our modern lifestyles are led inside buildings, we live, work and relax indoors.
We are all different and the mentioned stastics will not fit us all. We are humans and we differ - in anything and in everything. That also means we can have different ways of living and sometimes we can also live on the go, out & about or between spaces.
Other places can be at sports and at leasure spaces, at public spaces, at entertainment facilities and even more unusual spaces.
Being healthy starts from outdoors...
Speding time outdoors offers numerous health, physical and mental benefits - stronger immunity, improved mood, better sleep and reduced stress, and more. From normal sport activities to professional sport activities, there is a clear connection. And healthy bodies means healthy minds - and it is not only food as nutrients for the physical bodies but also the activity for health and enjoying well-balanced lives.
One example is the professional sportspeople and we have looked into their lives of top biathlon athletes in Sweden. The benefits of outdoor sports and exposure to nature often go beyond being active in a non-natural environment, i.e. being active indoors leads to a healthier lifestyle.
Watch: Indoor Climate — A Key Factor to Perform on Top
Lecturers: Malin Höij & Christoffer Lindström
Webinar recording from Swegon Air Academy, 2022. In this video you will get an insight into the lives of some of the top biathlon athletes in Sweden.
With the Swedish Biathlon National Team representatives: Håkan Blidberg, Kent Norell, Teodor Peterson, Magnus Oscarsson, Andreas Kårström and Hampus Lindblom.
"All forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels."
— Sport definition from the Council of Europe (1992)
Beside outdoors, what other places we go to?
We are the indoor people, spending about 87% of our time indoors.
We spend about 10+ years working and in work-related activities, and another 20+ years on leisure activities. And we spend 1/3 of our lives sleeping, typically at our home, but occasionally in other places - like hotels.
The statistics are clear: in a building (68.7%), outdoors (7.6%), in the car (5.5%), in the office-factory (5.4%), in the restaurant-bar (1.8%), and other indoor locations (11%).
We live, we work, we study and we leasure. What are other places we go?
There are more spaces we can found ourself in, some are very typical indoor spaces and some can be very unsual spaces. And sometimes it is a mix of being outdoor and indoor — all based on our ways of living.
Other places to work
At co-working spaces
At cafes
At restaurants
At hotels
Leasure & entertainment
At sports facilities
At museums
At concert halls
At libraries
Moving environments
At cars
At trains
At flights
At ships
The reality of indoor living – Time to think about resiliency in buildings
The indoor environments, where we spend most of our time, impact our lives. How and where we live, work, and the things we enjoy affect our lives – every day, every year, for the expected 72-78 years we live. The structure of our modern lives has led to us spending more time indoors than ever. We went from living outdoors in danger to moving indoors for protection. What is 'indoor living' doing to our health, well-being and productivity?
Read our Update&Insight 'The reality of indoor living – Time to think about resiliency in buildings'
"New normal: A tactful phrase... while the world is forever changed, we are adapting and adjusting."
— PA Life
More ways to live, work and study now...
Today, there are more ways of working – remotely, without a designated workplace and in co-working spaces. In the past few years, we have embraced a new way of working – remote, beyond just the office and allocated spaces in the traditional offices and meeting rooms.
Here are just a few examples of remote work trends:
- Co-working spaces as offices-for-rent.
- Working remotely from the cafes and/or restaurants, especially during slow hours and aiming at freelancers.
- Variety of spaces in hotels, not only dedicated rooms for meetings, but also work-from-hotels.
Nowadays, many models offer a variety of amenities, such as flexible and inspiring spaces, networking opportunities, and technical necessities, including refreshments, wireless connections, and controlled indoor environments.
Did you know that thare are many old terms for working from different places
Although remote work has existed for decades, it has many names. Terminology used in the literature varies, including telework, work from home, and hybrid work.
The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) has used the term telework, defining it as 'a work arrangement in which work is performed outside a default place of work, normally the employer’s premises, by means of information and communication technologies (ICT)'.
Coworking spaces as social infrastructures
We can also work where we live, in so-called co-living spaces combining accommodation with work environments and social interactions. Consequently, many hostels, hotels, restaurants, and other co-working spaces experiment with the mixed-use format, offering places to stay, work, sleep, meet, connect, and experience.
Thus, reshaping not only the hospitality business through new socio-spatial patterns of mobile digital work, but also utilising the buildings' full potential by maximising usage at full capacity for certain types of buildings that previously had only a dedicated use at specific times.
Actively protect people's work/life balance and their health & well-being
Work will be here to stay – but here is the new normal that needs more research to ensure that, in a way that promotes the well-being of people while meeting business needs.
Maintaining a healthy balance with work is now major interest. The research backs this up: people are working longer days – either if they are working remotely or from offices.
To again attract certain people to the office, it iss likely it needs to become something different: sometimes described as the 'anti-office' or an office with 'add-ons' – a place with a larger purpose than housing employees.
Yet, for some people there is another way of working and living, and they intentionally seek other places to go, work and live.
"Space is the breath of art."
— Frank Lloyd-Wright, Architect
Quirky places require more...
There are other places people can find ourself in and about. The enviroments might be highly unusual, challenging or even dangerous, just quirky or even unhabitable for humans.
There could be mines and canaries for signalling of bad air, extreme places like research laboratories in Antarctica, or diving deep down in submarines and travel to space with spacecrafts with limited air.
There are very unusual spaces – more like one-time opportunity for people to be in. However, they still need to breathe in these spaces and feel good even in the extreme climates.
Working underground
There is work in mines – with challenging conditons. Did you know that well into the 20th century, coal miners brought canaries into coal mines as an early warning signal for danger for toxic gases, primarly carbon monoxide?
It is super-early advanced warning system when the birds, being more senstive, would become sick before the miners and giving the miners a chance to escape the dangerous environment with bad air.
Extreme and remote places
For work, people could go to the places with extreme environments – perhaps they work at reserach laboratories in remote and cold areas.
Did you know that there is a research station in Antartica, where researchers go for six months out of year and work in challeging environments – be it extremely cold weather or distant remote places.
Out of breath, out of time
There are submarines and being under water definitely qualifies as a place with extreme conditions. Did you know that submarines typically operate with CO₂ levels between 2,000-5,000 ppm, significantly higher than the atmospheric average of ~400-600 ppm?
While normal limits in buildigns are around 1,000 ppm, naval crews are permitted up to 5,000-7,000 ppm to maintain operational efficiency without regular air replenishment.
Lost in space and time
And being out of space, people have already travelled to the Moon and back. To see the stars and also to explore another unhabitable spaces – the outer space that combines a challenging enviroment with extreme temperatures and with limited air supply.
First life, then spaces, then buildings – the other way around never works.Jan Gehl, urban visionary