Optimizing User Distributions in Open-Plan Offices for Communication and Their Implications for Energy Demand and Light Doses: A Living Lab Case Study

Open-plan offices have established themselves as economically efficient working environments and promote communication. Zoned lighting concepts have proven to be particularly energy-efficient and are determined by the respective occupancy profile. Due to their size, open-plan offices usually have very different levels of daylight availability depending on their position in the room, which affects the light doses per workstation. It is unclear what influence the distribution of users in the room has on the respective target values. This study therefore examines the effects of a variation in the spatial distribution of users in a real open-plan office regarding the three target values of communication distances, daily light doses, and artificial light energy requirements. Statistical methods are used to examine how a user distribution optimized for one target variable affects the other target variables. Since optimizing user distribution is an NP-hard combinatorial problem, heuristic methods are used. The results show that optimized user distribution improves only one target variable. There are no consistently strong correlations between the optimization of communication distances, energy savings, and achievable daily light doses. The work thus contributes to the holistic design of sustainable, user-centered working environments. This research is an example of a living lab case study with optimization-based modeling, emphasizing its exploratory nature rather than controlled experimental inference.