Workplace 11 Workplace
Why open-plan offices break concentration
When a workplace moves into open plan, the work that staff lose to noise can double, and how clearly nearby speech carries predicts that cost better than sheer volume.
Evidence, in depth
Reports
Each report analyses a key question about the built environment, naming its evidence sources, how current they are and how strong that evidence is.
Workplace 
Workplace 06 Workplace
Checking the biophilia business case
Read at the primary sources, the case for nature in buildings is narrower than advertised and strong enough to act on.
Healthcare 10 Healthcare
Hospital noise, still above the WHO floor
Of the two environmental levers on inpatient sleep, noise control is the better proven and the cheaper, while tunable lighting for the general ward is the one the evidence does not yet support.
Workplace 04 Workplace
Germany hasn't priced its indoor air
France priced indoor air pollution, Britain poor housing and Australia indoor mould. Germany has the method, and the missing number is a political choice.
Housing 02 Housing
Insurers don't look at the building
Health insurers price age, tobacco and zip code. Building quality is in no model, and the law is only half the reason.
Urban 03 Urban
How Singapore enforces greening
Mandatory greening raises developer costs before it differentiates assets, and the most cited showcase numbers come from the architects themselves.
Housing 09 Housing
Fear of eviction makes people ill
Britain abolished no-fault eviction. The evidence reads it as a health intervention, and the market decides who it reaches.
Workplace 07 Workplace
Four design choices that change office work
Even under conditions counted as acceptable, air quality takes 5 to 10 per cent off performance. Speech disrupts memory in the open plan, light shifts sleep and circadian timing and the view evidence stays thin.
Education 08 Education
Which classroom conditions affect learning
Where the evidence on classroom air, acoustics, light and green is strong, where it is thin, and what to measure before the build.
Healthcare 05 Healthcare
How the hospital room affects recovery
Bright hospital wards cut analgesic use by 22 per cent.
Workplace