A Study on Room Outward Views and Configuration and their Relation with Workers’ Spatial Satisfaction (the Case of Tehran District 1 Municipality Building)

Abstract

As office workers spend a lot of their working time in buildings, environment design aspects such as outward views can play a key role in their job satisfaction and work efficiency. The aim of this research is to study the effects of outward views on workers’ satisfaction with their environment. The assumption here is that people with better access to windows and outward view would express higher degrees of satisfaction with their work environment. Furthermore, the location of the worker in the building, it has been observed, plays a role in generating a sense of spatial airiness and desirability. Assessing measures of inward and outward views expressed by workers of Tehran District 1 municipality building, the research tries to clarify the role each one plays. The method used is based on quantitative studies, data collection through questionnaires, and their analysis using SPSS and Space Syntax’s Depthmap software. The findings demonstrate that in cases where workers have suitable outward but poor inward views, their satisfaction levels drop meaningfully. There are concluding design recommendations as to how to take the role of inward views into account and create outward views in office buildings.

Keywords

• outward view
• inward view
• window
• spatial satisfaction