Dunleavy and colleagues have determined that humans find working underground a more positive experience than might have been anticipated. Surveying people living in Singapore who worked either above or below ground ,the team investigated “the prevalence of psychological distress…over time in aboveground and underground workspaces…workers in similar aboveground and underground workspaces were followed-up in three assessments over 12 months…Perceived IEQ (air quality, temperature, noise, light) in the workplace were collected…[analyses] did not show any association between working underground and psychological distress…Underground workspaces were defined as work environments that are below the street level, while aboveground workspaces were on or above the street level. Underground workspaces did not contain a window view of the outdoor environment, while workers in aboveground workspaces varied in their distance and view of a window. Individuals in underground workspaces worked comparable job types (administration, control room and workshop) to those in aboveground workspaces.”
Gerard Dunleavy, Ram Baipal, Andre Tonon, Kei Cheung, Thuan-Quoc Thach, Yuri Rykov, Chee-Kiong Soh, Heinde Vries, Josip Car, and Georgios Christopoulos. “Prevalence of Psychological Distress and Its Association with Perceived Indoor Environmental Quality and Workplace Factors in Underground and Aboveground Workplaces.” Building and Environment, in press, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.106799
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.