The increasingly collaborative nature of knowledge-based work requires workplaces to support both dynamic interactions and concentrated work, both of which are critical for collaboration performance. Given the prevalence of open-plan settings, this requirement has created new challenges for workplace design. Therefore, an understanding of the relationship between the spatial characteristics of workplace settings and the support for collaboration that is perceived by office workers is valuable and timely. Based on a study of 308 office workers in 27 office spaces, this article examines the relationship between a series of workplace spatial characteristics and the support that is perceived by the occupants for collaborations. The spatial characteristics that were examined included individual workstation characteristics that were derived from the literature and a new set of floor-plan layout variables that highlighted shared spaces that are critical for a variety of formal and informal collaboration activities at work. The key characteristics of workplace spatial settings that were associated with the support that the occupants perceived for collaboration were the distance from workstation to meeting space, the distance from workstation to shared service area, the distance from workstation to kitchen/coffee area, and the percentage of floor space that was dedicated to shared services and amenities.

Studies investigating factors contributing to improved quality of care have found that effective team member communication is among the most critical and influential aspects in the delivery of quality care. Relatively little research has examined the role of the physical design of nursing units on communication patterns among care providers. Although the concept of decentralized unit design is intended to increase patient safety, reduce nurse fatigue, and control the noisy, chaotic, and crowded space associated with centralized nursing stations, until recently little attention has been paid to how such nursing unit designs affected communication patterns or other medical and organizational outcomes. Using a pre/post research design comparing more centralized or decentralized unit designs with a new multi-hub design, the aim of this study was to describe the relationship between the clinical spatial environment and its effect on communication patterns, nurse satisfaction, distance walked, organizational outcomes, patient safety, and patient satisfaction. Hospital institutional data indicated that patient satisfaction increased substantially. Few significant changes were found in communication patterns; no significant changes were found in nurse job satisfaction, patient falls, pressure ulcers, or organizational outcomes such as average length of stay or patient census.

The value of effective collaboration has become increasingly critical for organizational performance and agility. Along with technical and managerial strategies, the workspace spatial environment needs to be recognized and studied for its impact on collaboration and interactive behavior at work. Most spatial parameters studied in the workplace research literature are workstation-scale characteristics. However, these may not sufficiently describe the variety of shared spaces in which collaborative work and interactions take place. Based on a two-year multiple-site field study of workplace settings, this paper explores the space typology of a wide spectrum of formal and informal collaborative spaces, and it introduces a new set of layout-scale quantitative indices to describe the amount and distribution of collaborative spaces in a workplace. This research tested layout-scale spatial variables and compared them with workstation-scale variables in order to determine how well these variables predict the occupants' perception of the support from their workplace spatial environment for collaborative work and the distractions from others' interactive behavior in the work environment. The design implications of the findings are explored, and future research directions are identified.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been actively promoting comprehensive policy measures to reduce carbon emissions from non-residential buildings. Among them, the Tokyo Cap-and-Trade Program (TCTP), implemented since 2010, is an important measure to accelerate the building sector’s emission reduction to achieve Tokyo’s greenhouse gas target, 25% reduction by 2020 from a year 2000 baseline level. Under TCTP, all large commercial and industrial facilities are required to achieve the 25% reduction in two compliance periods (FY2010–14 and FY2015–19). An emission-trading scheme was established that allows building owners to purchase carbon credits to compensate for shortfalls and sell excess reductions over the obligations. This paper assesses the effectiveness of TCTP based on extensive data obtained from 1300 facilities covered by the programme and surveys among facility owners from the first compliance phase. Data indicate that TCTP has been working effectively to reduce energy consumption in participating facilities to meet the ambitious emission reduction goals, to introduce new technologies, and to raise awareness and drive behavioural changes for energy demand reduction. TCTP is examined as an alternative policy instrument to building energy codes in a portfolio of sustainable building policies, highlighting its unique capacity for driving deeper and longer-term improvements for more ambitious mitigation targets.

In April 2010 the Tokyo Metropolitan Government launched the Tokyo Cap-and-Trade Program to reduce energy consumption-related CO₂ emissions at the city level. This is the world's first cap-and-trade programme to cover buildings in the commercial, industrial and public sectors. Its main aim is to reduce CO₂ emissions from energy consumption in existing buildings in urban areas; therefore, it is called an ‘urban cap-and-trade programme’. The appropriateness and effectiveness of this demand-side mechanism are examined, as well as the key policy and strategy components for introducing this new mechanism. Crucial factors for the successful introduction of this programme include the implementation of a mandatory reporting programme prior to the cap-and-trade programme and a consultation process involving open discussions among stakeholders for creating a consensus. Actual outcomes of the programme will take several years to assess; however, given the significant impact of growing carbon emissions from existing urban buildings, an urban cap-and-trade mechanism can be a worthwhile action at the level of local governance. Based on these lessons, other cities can consider this urban cap-and-trade scheme as a viable policy instrument. En avril 2010, l'Administration Métropolitaine de Tokyo a lancé le Programme de Plafonnement et d'Echange de Droits d'Emission de Tokyo afin de réduire les émissions de CO₂ liées à la consommation d'énergie au niveau de la ville. Il s'agit là du premier programme au monde de plafonnement et d'échange de droits d'émission de gaz à effet de serre à couvrir les bâtiments des secteurs commercial, industriel et public. Son principal but est de réduire les émissions de CO₂ dues à la consommation d'énergie dans les immeubles existants des zones urbaines ; il est par conséquent considéré comme un « programme urbain de plafonnement et d'échanges de droits d'émission ». L'opportunité et l'efficacité de ce mécanisme axé sur la demande sont examinées, ainsi que les éléments clés politiques et stratégiques permettant d'introduire ce nouveau mécanisme. Les facteurs cruciaux pour une introduction réussie de ce programme comprennent la mise en œuvre d'un programme de reporting obligatoire préalablement au programme de plafonnement et d'échange de droits d'émission et un processus de consultation impliquant un débat ouvert entre les parties prenantes afin de créer un consensus. L'évaluation des résultats concrets de ce programme prendra plusieurs années ; cependant, étant donné l'impact significatif de l'augmentation des émissions de carbone provenant des bâtiments urbains existants, un mécanisme urbain de plafonnement et d'échange des droits d'émission peut être une mesure utile au niveau de la gouvernance locale. Sur la base de ces enseignements, d'autres grandes villes peuvent considérer ce système urbain de plafonnement et d'échange des droits d'émission comme étant un instrument viable de politique. Mots clés: bâtiments, plafonnement et échange de droits d'émission, villes, changement climatique, émissions de CO₂, demande énergétique, gouvernance, formulation d'une politique, motivation des parties prenantes

In recent years work and learning have radically changed to support community-focused, inter-professional, and interdisciplinary engagements. In response, companies and public administrations have been developing networked and dispersed workspaces to grant people access to a variety of places tailored to their needs. Likewise, university campuses have been evolving in the same direction. Aiming to expand into different geographical contexts, universities have been activating off-campus facilities that enact their mission of sustainable development, university-industry connection, and social inclusion. However, the phenomenon is still poorly understood even though evidence exists that it is an expanding trend. This study analyses this emergent phenomenon we call University Hubs by distinguishing it from other similar dynamics and discussing it in the context of the hybridization of spaces for study and work. Through a preliminary case study analysis, the paper reflects on University Hubs as an opportunity for the development of future university models. These spaces can pursue knowledge creation and sharing with diverse communities outside the campus boundaries, but they entail the risk of simply enhancing university visibility in different places without pursuing a true engagement with local communities.