Research Design Connection Report Card: ABW for Faculty

by Sally Augustin, Ph.D. | February 3rd, 2020

Barnes, Wineman and Adler report on the use of an activity-based workplace by academic faculty members. They share that at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) “Mission Hall, a new office building primarily for desktop and clinical researchers and staff, was designed as an activity-based workplace (ABW), a type of open-space design…[in ABWs the] mix of shared and open workspaces is intended to improve efficiency and interaction…The Mission Hall experience provided a unique opportunity to understand the impact of an ABW design on faculty satisfaction, work effectiveness, well-being, and engagement. In a 2016 survey of faculty, one year after occupancy, respondents reported adverse changes in all four areas. The most common complaints involved noise exposure and lack of visual and auditory privacy. In response to these issues, faculty reported working at home or elsewhere more frequently, making collaboration more difficult. In 2018, UCSF retrofitted the building to create some …