The Design Implications of Social Interaction in a Workplace Setting

Space has been traditionally conceptualised as a passive host to its user activities. Increasingly, however, it is recognised that patterns of human interaction are derivative of the spatial configuration of which they are an integral part. This work is almost wholly confined to computational statistics of undifferentiated interactional encounters. In this paper specifically qualitative techniques will be used to extend and refine this model in order to demonstrate empirically that user behaviour may be more usefully conceptualised as a complex coalition of human behaviour and environmental resources. It is concluded that the relationship between partners of social interaction and spatial layout is more diverse and complex than previously understood, and that this complexity can only be fully accessed by a microanalytic qualitative methodology.