top of page

Prospect and Refuge within an Agile Workplace Environment

Cara Folkert

Cara Folkert is a Master of Architecture Student and Interior Designer at SmithGroup Detroit. She holds dual Bachelors of Science in Architecture and of Interior Architecture. Her main interest lies in the application of environmental psychology principals into a variety of project types.

This thesis focuses on the application of Prospect-Refuge Theory to interior office environments. An agile office was used for the study based on employees being able to choose their workstation seating. Spatial and seating preference of employees in a Detroit-based office were gathered by a survey. Eighty workstations were given ranks of both prospect and refuge. The overlay of prospect-refuge and the most and least preferred workstation seats provided a relationship showing that individuals tend to prefer seat with higher refuge and that are further away from main circulation paths.

Department>

Architecture

Program>

Architecture M. Arch

bottom of page