THE MIXED VIRTUAL/REAL MATRIX FOR WORKSPACES: A MEDIATING SOLUTION BETWEEN REMOTE AND ON-SITE WORKING

One of the positive aspects of the pandemic has been the opportunity for people to experiment with an existing but untapped type of work: working online from home or from their favourite places or spaces. The ability to work from anywhere has made this an increasingly sought-after feature these days. Remote working presents a number of problems both psychologically and in terms of employee productivity and efficiency. These cannot be solved by the current limited solutions. This article attempts to provide a solution both to preserve the possibility to work from anywhere and to mitigate the undesirable effects of this way of working by implementing mixed real/virtual matrix and Smart Multimedia walls technology. The proposed solution aims at more than just making larger monitors. Through the technology proposed for use, it creates a space where people working remotely can interact as if they were in the same room, in an authentic office atmosphere. Many of the mental, efficiency and productivity problems can be solved by these shared, supervised and organised workspaces. The study is focused on defining a space for working and its constructive elements, designed to satisfy the needs observed in the meta-analyses phase. One major objective of the solution is to make use of Smart Multimedia Walls, a device patented as a result of the design-based research focused on finding new constructive elements in the architecture practice. The use of meta-analyses method and design-based method provide a background for the current research, which follows a mixed-method for designing a novel work environment and finding a suitable framework on which it can be implemented. The framework is a formulation of a more general system, referred to as the mixed matrix (real/virtual), which ensures a logistic for the extrapolated confluence of workspaces. The reality in an office space is augmented by virtual connections that are understood as interchanging written, vocal and video content. The mixed matrix is about interchanging spaces with all their three dimensions. The continuing growth in popularity of remote working, the development of technologies to support it, and statistics on employees' preferences to work remotely or in the office indicate that remote working is unquestionably the solution of the future.