SEASON 4 EPISODE 05:

Nigel Oseland:
Beyond the Workplace Zoo

This week on the SpaceCraft podcast, Dan Moscrop interviews Nigel Oseland about his new book "Beyond the Workplace Zoo" focused on transformative workplace design and innovative office architecture.

Nigel drew from 30 years of environmental psychology research during COVID-19 lockdowns, critiquing overly dense, efficiency-focused workspaces ignoring human needs through flawed open office plans and workspace branding.

He advocates reviving 1950s/60s office landscape and Action Office concepts - providing open, organic layouts with privacy partitions and greenery integrated into sustainable workspace design he calls the "Landscaped Office."

They discuss how different personalities and neurodiversities require varied settings, moving beyond the open vs private office debate with a range of zones from collaboration to quiet spaces through human-centric office architecture and malleable workplace branding.

Other topics include remote work impacts, Zoom fatigue, the "Great Resignation," break/movement importance, environmental conditions like temperature/noise, and optimal team sizing concepts like Dunbar's Number influencing workspace layout.

Nigel encourages getting his book, offering a discount code to make the research and transformative design principles for improved workplace wellbeing and performance more accessible to rethink stale office environments through innovative architecture.