TheO - The Extended Office

In the project TheO, we develop design methods and principles for the extended office through user-involved and interactive studies. The goal is to achieve sustainable, inclusive and flexible hybrid working ways, robust enough to meet unexpected system changes.

The purpose of TheO (The Extended Office) is to develop new knowledge, which helps to provide a concrete ground for new [design] principles, to support the development of new user-centered hybrid working ways and workplaces.

The subordinate study "Hybrid transformation - from traditional offices to flexible and activity based workplaces in a municipal context" aims to study the transformation from more traditional to hybrid ways of working and workplaces in a municipal context. In this case study, we want to understand how existing information about hybrid working ways (which is currently very limited), is applied and how user needs are taken into consideration in the design. RQ 1. What in the current information about hybrid working methods and workplaces is applied in the development of Skärholmens stadsdelsförvaltning new hybrid offices? RQ 1. What factors affect users' working ways and opportunities to work in a hybrid mode? (Conditions such as regulations, legal space, management, governance, control, democracy issues, norms and group dynamics that affect hybrid work.)

Project goals

The primary project goal is to develop methods for how organizations can explore user needs and ideas about workplace and factors that set the framework for working ways: norms, group dynamics, management and control, related to hybrid work by asking:

1. How users perceive and choose workplace and technology, in relation to current activities and working methods?
2. What forward-looking criteria for design can be defined in relation to hybrid forms of work? Secondly, the goal is to use the identified criteria to develop a model that supports the development of the design of hybrid workplaces.