ALECTIA and DTU Management have teamed up in the industrial PhD project “Integrating working environment knowledge in design processes”. The project is conducted by Lene Bjerg Sørensen, Msc at ALECTIA’s Workspace Design department. It took off in May 2009 and its completion is expected in 2012.

The project investigates how integration of working environment knowledge and user experience in design processes can ensure that efficient, healthy, and safe workplaces are established in all assignments that ALECTIA is involved in. Be it building assignments or assignments implementing new processing plants in companies.

Scientific studies show that involvement of users and working environment considerations in design processes result in healthier and more efficient workplaces. Nevertheless it is not uncommon that newly constructed buildings, plants and facilities have to undergo cost-intensive changes due to working environment and efficiency requirements. It makes sense to look at how working environment knowledge and users’ experience and knowledge about their workplace can be combined with technical engineering knowledge.

The project looks at day-to-day work habits in selected departments and assignments representing cross-functional knowledge from working environment disciplines, users, and technical engineering disciplines, investigating e.g. experience from project managers and work environment consultants.

In consulting, companies’ knowledge has a crucial impact on the final product. Accordingly, the project’s analyses will have knowledge sharing and management, learning theory and actor-network theory as theoretical scope. Analyses will look for patterns and correlations likely to encourage or discourage the integration of working environment knowledge and user experience in design processes. Moreover, timing aspects, e.g. when different types of knowledge ideally should be integrated, will be identified along with other influencers on the successful integration of working environment considerations and user involvement in cross-disciplinary project teams.