Civil Engineering and Architecture 10(5): 1931-1947, 2022 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/cea.2022.100517 Smart Biophilic Framework to Improve Productivity of Existing Office Buildings in Egypt Ranad Bahaa Afify 1,* , Mohamed Medhat Dorra 2 , Dalia Aboubakr 2 , Indjy Mohamed Shawket 3 1 Department of Architectural Engineering, Modern Academy for Engineering and Technology, Cairo, 19049, Egypt 2 Department of Architectural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Giza, 12613, Egypt 3 Department of Green Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Heliopolis University, Cairo, 11757, Egypt Received April 18, 2022; Revised May 27, 2022; Accepted June 21, 2022 Cite This Paper in the following Citation Styles (a): [1] Ranad Bahaa Afify, Mohamed Medhat Dorra, Dalia Aboubakr, Indjy Mohamed Shawket , "Smart Biophilic Framework to Improve Productivity of Existing Office Buildings in Egypt," Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 10, No. 5, pp. 1931-1947, 2022. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2022.100517. (b): Ranad Bahaa Afify, Mohamed Medhat Dorra, Dalia Aboubakr, Indjy Mohamed Shawket (2022). Smart Biophilic Framework to Improve Productivity of Existing Office Buildings in Egypt. Civil Engineering and Architecture, 10(5), 1931-1947. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2022.100517. Copyright©2022 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract We spend most of our lives indoors. For the majority of us, the time is spent at work, often in buildings that were not designed to facilitate well-being or any natural elements. Yet we prefer to be around fresh air, greenery and natural elements. Architects have improved the places we live and work, but they have paid little attention to physiological needs. ''Smart Biophilic design'' could be a tool for a more relaxed workplace, where nature is brought into the environment either physically or digitally, to relieve stress and improve an individual's well-being by bringing the outside in. Consequently, this study proposes a framework for developing the existing office buildings in Egypt into smart biophilic ones. Such a development will serve the society by improving productivity of employees which will lead to more financial revenues to companies as well as an improvement to the economy of the country. The study used a quantitative method to develop the framework, by applying a questionnaire to arrange the smart biophilic systems/materials according to specific criteria, then analyzing the questionnaire results to reach an action plan of arranged smart biophilic systems/materials as inputs to formulate existing workplaces framework. The results demonstrated a positive correlation between the physical environmental factors and productivity. Hence, this study recommends smart biophilic developments to the existing office buildings in Egypt to maintain healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving productive buildings. Keywords Biophilia, Smart, Physiological Needs, Well-Being, Development 1. Introduction The workplace is the crux of progress in modern society, where the employee spends about 48 hours per week, 8 hours daily, which means one-third of the day. Employers want their employees to be productive at all times, but operating at 100% efficiency is unlikely. One of the reasons is a loss of natural spirit in the built environment and interior spaces. We now spend most of our time surrounded by drywalls, concrete, wood, and steel with minimal contact with nature [1]. According to a global survey by human spaces, 47% of office employees worldwide do not have access to natural light, while 58% have no natural plants. Furthermore, according to World Green Building Council surveys of Middle Eastern countries, 42% of employees in the Middle East felt uncreative because of office design. In addition, 37% felt a lack of comfort in their offices [3].
Smart Biophilic Framework to Improve Productivity of Existing Office Buildings in Egypt
Apr 25, 2023
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