Abstract
As office workers tend to spend more time indoors nowadays, the importance of physical environments has been emphasized. Those who work longer hours in the office are likely to get more stress from the environments. A number of studies have proved that the plants (natural elements) were effective in relieving stress. Therefore, it is concluded that interior landscape is effective on enhancing the psychological wellbeing of office workers. The purposes of this study were as follows: (1) to determine the best modulized designs through rating psychological indices, and (2) to prove its effectiveness by applying those designs onto actual office environments. This study was conducted from April, 2012 to November, 2012. The subjects of the study were comprised of 154 juniors and seniors in Seoul Women's University. They are university students who are seeking jobs upon graduation. To this end, field investigations, surveys, and literature reviews were conducted. The results of the study indicated as follows: First, the most optimal models for psychological wellbeing have been derived. Second, the interior landscape had a positive effect on the psychological wellbeing of the office workers. On the basis of these findings, interior landscape with greens plays a big role in promoting the psychological wellbeing of the office workers. Also, its effect can be maximized when modulized design is combined with interior landscape. The limit of this study lies in its simplicity of design elements as emotional design aspects were quantified for statistical processing. In the near future, further studies focusing on various design elements need to be carried out. To sum up, the researcher hopes that these findings contribute to psychological recovery of the office workers, and interior landscape becomes more prevalent in the workplace.
