Adaptive Workspace,
Better Health

SONATA: Situation-aware Orchestration of AdapTive Architecture

SONATA addresses the dissatisfaction of workers about their workplace design by implementing architectural adaptive tech- nologies on a personal scale, and by evaluating their impact. The EU-funded four-year project aims to provide evidence-based re- commendations on how architectural adaptation enhances human health and well-being in hybrid workplaces.

SONATA proposes that adaptive technologies should be: situated, aware of the actual activities and preferences of workers; orche- strated, augmenting the positive impact of multiple technologies with each other; and equitable, distributing the positive impact on as many workers as possible.

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Years

4

Partners

16

Countries

10

Pilots

3

Architectural adaptation

SONATA will implement and evaluate architectural adaptive technologies on four different layers.

Skin

Electrochromic glass facade, to protect and reduce visual glare.

Space plan

Autonomously moving robotic partitions, to dynamically change visual, spatial and acoustic comfort.

Services

Omnidirectional smart lighting system to direct light only when and where it is needed. Height-adjustable ceiling panels to reduce the ambient noise levels and reverberation.

Stuff

Height-adjustable desks, to reduce negative health effects of sedentary behavior.

How?

The study methodology involves four phases: generating hypotheses to enhance worker health and wellbeing, implementing architectural adaptation technologies, deploying evidence-based intervention evaluation through lab and field studies, and synthesizing outcomes into a set of recommendations targeting different stakeholders.

Lab studies

Our scientific lab and living-lab studies will measure the impact of multiple adaptive technologies in isolation and in combination with each other, for single workers as well as for contexts that involve multiple workers.

Situational study

Investigates how a single adaptive layer, controlled at varying situational awareness levels, affects individuals in a shared workplace.

Orchestration study

Assesses health benefits of single and then multiple orchestrated adaptive layers, aiming for greater holistic impact than individual parts.

Socio-cultural study

Evaluates impacts of situational-aware and orchestrated adaptive layers, focusing on vulnerable groups in different sociocultural contexts.

Field studies

We asses long-term effects of situational-aware and orchestrated adaptations on occupant well-being and productivity in real-world settings, focusing on three hybrid work contexts. Field studies involve direct observation and data collection in actual workplaces.