Poor office buildings can result in occupants experiencing Sick Building Syndrome symptoms (Joshi, 2008). These symptoms include headaches, exhaustion, inability to concentrate and reduced work efficiency (Redlich et al., 1997; Joshi, 2008). The latter is disastrous for a company’s competitiveness. After all, less productive employees can get less work done, have a lower contribution in meetings, create less value for organizations and are in that respect more expensive (Mawson & Johnson, 2014). The importance of the (physical) workplace in affecting productivity of employees is acknowledged frequently (see e.g. De Been & Beijer, 2014, Mawson & Johnson, 2014).
However, the effect of the work environment on productivity is difficult to measure and thereby difficult to improve, especially for knowledge intensive firms (Mawson & Johnson, 2014). Simultaneously, the amount of knowledge intensive firms and thereby the number of knowledge workers, is increasing (Davenport, 2011; Hvide & Kristiansen, 2012). This change in economy makes knowledge workers an interesting research population. Nevertheless, many authors tried to gain more insights in this field. However, a clear overview of the most important workspace and building characteristics that affect productivity is missing.