Office-Nature Integration Trends and Forest-Office Concept FO-AM

Abstract

Abstract For sustainable development, it is important to ensure healthy life and well-being for all ages, promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, productive employment and decent work, take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects and protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems. Taking into account the negative effects of climate change, the degrading effects of contemporary conventional industrial scale agricultural practices, the declining everyday physical activity of the working age people in developed countries, and other problems related to indoor work, this research proposes the office concept entitled FO-AM (Forest-Office Administrative (function) Movement) that allows to gradually move from sitting to walking while working in purposefully created or adapted forest areas. Numerous studies have been conducted on the positive effects of the natural environment on human health and productivity. A study published by Australian researchers revealed that sitting time is directly linked to all-cause mortality. While research results call for effective innovations for reducing the amount of time spent sitting and encouraging people, especially urban residents, to connect with nature, no effective holistic solutions have been found yet. The article presents a literature review on the contemporary office-nature space integration trends and the existing technical and design solutions and contemporary re-naturalization practices of ex-urban areas and presents the conceptual idea of landscape technology FO-AM allowing to transfer the functions of administrative buildings to the semi-natural and natural environment, including partially anthropogenic environment, park, forest park and natural forest, and in this way to address public health and well-being, economic innovation and climate change issues, thus contributing to the long-term sustainability goals.