FOCUS INTERVIEW
THE HUMAN TOUCH Sara Bean talks with Environmental Psychologist and Workplace Strategist Dr Nigel
Oseland about the decades of research behind his new book and why an understanding of
the psychology of the workplace is essential as we embrace new ways of working
Like many people during lockdown,
Environmental Psychologist and Workplace
Strategist Dr Nigel Oseland, contemplated writing
a book. Unlike most he completed it, and its timing
couldn’t be better. Beyond the workplace zoo;
Humanising the o ice, is not only a meditation on
some of the key design mistakes of the modern
workplace, but it also presents ways to plan,
design and manage workplaces that deliver
humanistic and inclusive solutions.
Influenced by Zoologist Desmond Morris’ book The
Human Zoo, which compared the experiences of city
dwellers to animals in zoos, the
idea of the workplace zoo is that
the homogenous design of the
typical open plan oŽ ice fails
to diŽ erentiate between
individual’s wants and
needs. It suggests ways
to break free from
28 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022
this thinking and take a more human centric approach
to workplace design.
As FMs and workplace managers contemplate how
the workplace is going to emerge from the eŽ ects
of the pandemic, his book mines a rich history of
research into environmental psychology and oŽ ers
some practical and evidence-based solutions that
support vastly changed working patterns.
The history of the book explains Oseland, came from
a desire to explore the results of his research into the
psychology of the workplace, accumulated during a
career spanning over 30 years. But it soon evolved
into something deeper.
“The idea was to make psychology more accessible
to people, so I thought it a good idea to take all my
research and make it digestible and easily read to
those who don’t have a psychology background.
“When I first started writing the book I
envisaged concentrating on the research but
as it turned out I started to suggest things
you could do, which is when the book
became two halves. In the first half of the
book I explain, ‘here are the problems’ and
in the second half, I oŽ er some solutions.
I’m always aware I’m not a designer but
I’ve been working with design teams and
helping them to gauge oŽ ice concepts for
most of my career.”
Oseland began his career as a
Physiological Measurement Technician
at St Bart’s in London, working with
psychologists to record the physiological
response to diŽ erent kinds of therapy. This
peaked his interest to study psychology at
university, which gave him a grounding in
gathering evidence-based data for a career
which was then called, ‘human-machine
interaction and human factors’.
He took a job at the Building Research
Establishment in their human factors
department studying the human impact
of temperature, noise and other factors
in a workplace environment, and while
there was funded to do a Masters in
Environmental Psychology and a PhD at
Cranfield.
He explains: “A— er 11 years I thought I
can’t do research all my life so my first role
in consulting was with Johnson Controls –
carrying out post occupancy evaluations.”
Echoing the evolution of the book,
Oseland realised that measuring post
occupancy satisfaction levels was all
very well, but oŽ ering advice on space
planning prior to refits would be of more
value to help organisations get it right in
the first place. Following stints at Swanke
Harden Connell Architects as well as AMA
and DEGW, he eventually set up his own
consultancy Workplace Unlimited where
he specialises in advising people on how to
implement agile / flexible working.
DESIGN & FUNCTION
One of the particular purposes of utilising
the expertise of an environmental
psychologist is to help marry up design
ideals with how the space may actually be
utilised by occupants.