It has been reported that office environment is an important determinant of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) in office workers. However, the effect of changes in office environment (office renovation) is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine PA, SB, and space utilization changes among office workers in response to office renovation. This study was a natural experiment at three offices of a single company in Tokyo, Japan. The participants were, 13 workers from one office in the renovation group (mean age: 37.9 ± 10.8 years, percentage of females: 23.1%) and 29 from two offices in the control group (mean age: 42.3 ± 11.2 years, percentage of females: 31.0%). In the renovation, introduction of activity-based working (ABW) and installation of height-adjustable desks (HAD) were adopted. The ABW office was designed to provide various shared workstations, enabling the workers to choose workstations depending on their task or mood. Accelerometer measurement and object detection method using artificial intelligence (AI) technology for video images were used to assess behavior and space utilization before and after the renovation. Two weeks after the renovation, significant improvements in SB (pre- to post-renovation improvements: 346.8 ± 28.6 to 321.2 ± 17.8 min/working-hours) and PA (total PA: 173.2 ± 28.6 to 198.8 ± 17.8 min/working-hours; and light-intensity PA: 130.4 ± 27.1 to 150.7 ± 31.0 min/working-hours) were observed. In addition, the results of the object detection analysis showed that the central aisle of the office and shared HAD workstations near the entrance or window were utilized more frequently than the other spaces. This study suggested that office renovation could improve SB and PA immediately after the renovation. Moreover, utilized spaces and HAD workstations could play an important role to enhance employees’ activity in an ABW office.

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Allen and Gerstberger (1973) reported that non-territorial offices improve privacy. In actuality, however, a view of the office layout after an experiment showed that the office used in the experiment was not just simply made into a non-territorial office, but had various zoning done such that zones could be selected according to circumstance. With that idea in mind, this study analyzes the impact of non-territorial offices on privacy as well as the effect of various zoning, based on data of 6,592 individuals obtained through internet surveys. Results of the analysis showed that 1) non-territorial offices themselves do not have a major impact on privacy (they neither improve nor worsen privacy); 2) rather, various zoning is what improves privacy; and 3) further, of note is that privacy dramatically worsens in non-territorial offices without any various zoning, and vastly improves where various zoning has been thoroughly implemented. These results give one solution for the disputes over non-territorial offices and privacy, and provide suggestions for a new type of office (activity-based working, or an activity-based office).

Objective: Ergonomic office redesigning possibly improves physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB); however, its impact on cardiometabolic risk has not yet been determined. This study aimed to examine the effect of office relocation on cardiometabolic risk factors. Methods: Annual health check-up data of 95 office workers from four offices in Tokyo, Japan, who relocated to an office with activity-based working (ABW) and height-adjustable desk (HAD) and a propensity-score matched control-cohort were analyzed. PA and SB on weekdays were measured only in the relocation group before and 10 months after relocation. Results: Significant interactions were observed for waist circumference, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c). HbA1c changes showed a significant negative association with moderate-to-vigorous-intensity PA. Conclusion: An ABW office with HAD improves cardiometabolic risk factors in office workers, possibly through changes in PA and SB.