1st SONATA Adaptive Workspace Recommendations Workshop

Feb 13, 2025 | Workshops and Events

A long wooden desk with collapsible wooden seating in front, in a classroom. On the desk are lanyards and name tags, registration sheets and blue SONATA-branded folders stacked and lined up in six parallel rows.

On Thursday 6th February 2025 the SONATA project hosted its first hybrid Adaptive Workspace Recommendations Workshop, held at the Reiff-Museum, Faculty of Architecture, RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

The Recommendations Workshop was a vital step in the SONATA methodology, as a key outcome of SONATA will be a series of evidence-based recommendations, developed from the evaluation of results from our study tracks.

To ensure that these recommendations are as applicable as possible, four Recommendations Workshops will be held through the project’s lifespan. Last week’s workshop introduced over fifty participants in-person and online, both from within the SONATA consortium and from the wider academic research community, to the first SONATA baseline recommendations.

Before the discussions began, guests were offered a demonstration of the world’s first 1:1 prototype of the adaptive office of the future in the Aachen Workplace Simulation Laboratory, experiencing the SONATA adaptive technologies in action and gaining context of the specific focus of the project.

Following an introduction by host Marcel Schweiker from Uniklinik RWTH Aachen and a project overview from Andrew Vande Moere from project coordinators KU Leuven, participants enjoyed an insightful Keynote Presentation from invited speaker Dr. Ir. Rianne Appel-Meulenbroek from Eindhoven University of Technology on “Office workplace design for mental and social health & wellbeing”.

With the context and background of the SONATA project established, the interactive co-design workshop could begin, in which the SONATA authors introduced their most potentially “controversial” recommendations to small groups, each comprising SONATA members and external attendees. In-depth group discussion was followed by a feedback session, with each group presenting their findings to the attendees. A meta discussion then allowed everyone to contribute to the fine-tuning of each recommendation to maximise relevancy and impact.

The session was lively and our recommendation authors, and the consortium as a whole, have taken away invaluable contributions from our external attendees. We would like to take the chance to thank all those who participated for their time, expertise and inputs. Together we will continue to work towards better, healthier workspaces!

Our next Recommendations Workshop will take place at the Università degli Studi di Perugia in November 2025. This next workshop will see the SONATA Recommendations, developed in the coming year, presented for discussion to our next target group of policymakers. As 2025 is promising to be very productive for SONATA, with our Living Labs in Aachen and Perugia, and our Field Track in Leuven hosting upcoming experiments, the next Recommendations Workshop will showcase truly innovative recommendations, reflecting the cutting edge nature of SONATA’s novel approach to adaptive workspace design.

Classroom with rows of old-fashioned wooden seats and bench desks. A small stage at the front of the room has a SONATA banner, a desk and behind a presentation screen. In the foreground is SONATA materials, including a pile of lanyards and name tags, papers and seven rows of stacked blue folders with SONATA branding.
Workshop venue at the Reiff-Museum
Man stands on a stage at the front of a classroom with rows of wooden seating and bench desks in the foreground. He stands behind a desk in front of a presentation screen with a slide reading "1st SONATA Dissemination Workshop Aachen".
Introduction from Marcel Schweiker
Man stands on a stage at the front of a classroom with rows of wooden seating and bench desks in the foreground. He stands behind a desk in front of a presentation screen with a slide containing project partner logos.
SONATA Project presentation from Andrew Vande Moere
Woman stands on a stage at the front of a classroom with rows of wooden seating and bench desks in the foreground. She stands behind a desk in front of a presentation screen with a slide showing title "Office workplace design for mental and social health & wellbeing".
Keynote Speaker Presentation
Five people sitting on chairs in a circle in conversation. One person holds a piece of white paper.
Group discussion with recommendation author
Classroom with group of three people sitting across two rows of wooden seating, in discussion in the foreground, on a stage in the background is one group of four people standing, talking around a desk and another group of four people sitting on the stage in a circle, talking.
Group discussions
Four people stand behind a desk on a stage at the front of a classroom, one man talking. The SONATA banner poster sits to the left of the desk.
Feedback Discussion
A classroom with rows of wooden seating and bench desks in the foreground, with people sitting scattered through the seating. A man stands behind a desk in front of a presentation screen displaying the video connection from an online attendee.
Online Participant Feedback