Indoor vs Outdoor Office

When you think about the perfect office, what does it look like? Are you sitting under a ceiling or a massive tree? Are there little pot plants everywhere or is your desk sitting on a flat, grassy field? The perfect office is where you feel the most inspired, motivated and creative, so there’s no wrong or right answer.
So how do we compare and indoor and outdoor office?

Why can’t we have both?

I would be reluctant to make a complete separation between the two. In recent times there has been a noticeable shift to combine aspects of indoor and outdoor into modern office architecture. This is done in many different ways:

Nature in the workplace

There has certainly been a push to add more greenery to the workplace. Plants are beautiful and relaxing to look at. In a bit of a dull office environment, nothing brightens up the senses quite like a bit of natural decor. Research tells us that plants not only create an overall more pleasant environment, but they can also help with health, well-being, and productivity in the workplace. Indoor plants can also help lower stress and negative feelings and improve indoor air quality.
Without veering too much into the realm of unfamiliarity, adding plants and maybe even the occasional water feature to the classic indoor office setting can help make your work environment healthier and more attractive.

Natural light

Natural light is considered to be the number one desired element in workplace design, and for good reason too.

Studies have shown that people who work in offices with windows and a decent exposure to natural light sleep better, work better and feel better. Which probably explains why a number of offices choose to have vast, open window space, giving workers their daily dose of sunshine. In addition to greenery in the workplace, an exposure to natural sunlight has been proven to increase creativity and productivity in workers. It helps reduce stress, increases positivity and can even help maintain healthy development.

The Indoor-Outdoor Office

Now that we have looked at little ways of bringing the outside into the indoor office, let’s have a look at an office that literally smashes the two together. The concept of Indoor-Outdoor offices can work with the idea of bringing the indoors outside and vice versa.
So it doesn’t get too confusing, here is a great example:

The office pictured above is the famous Selgas Cano office in Madrid. The office is situated in a forest not too far away from civilisation, but far enough for employees to feel as though they are in their own little bubble of the world. This office is a brilliant example of the indoors being brought outside. It almost seems as though the office was ripped out of the city and placed right in the middle of nature.
As we have established, it is very difficult to make a comparison between an indoor and outdoor office, as they are extremely hard to separate nowadays. Modern architecture is blurring the lines between the indoor and outdoor and they are turning out rather spectacular.
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