Types of Studies
A distribution of wireless internet use across the University at Buffalo campus.
DEGW NA
DEGW conducts research endeavours at several scales:
For thirty years, research at DEGW has broken new ground in understanding the changes affecting the built environment. During this period, DEGW’s research has focused on everything from the chair to the city. This tradition continues.
DEGW undertakes research to give its clients factual, informed advice. That advice ranges from the urban intervention that is appropriate in a specific context, to which location and built solution best meets a business need, to how to reconfigure interior space to make the inhabiting organisation more effective.
Some research DEGW looks to answer the ‘big questions’ of the times. The SANE project looked at, for example, the way the changing nature of work – i.e. increased worker mobility and increasing reliance on technology – impacted the sorts of spaces required. DEGW’s own understanding of the changing nature of the social, economic and environmental conditions drives this sort of research.
DEGW’s research approach is to engage a group of interested organisations – both public and private – to form a research consortium that investigates a single issue over the course of 12 months. Currently DEGW is investigating or planning to investigate the best practice in intelligent buildings, the changing nature of the home in a distributed workplace, and change management techniques for large-scale sectoral changes.
DEGW also carries out bespoke research for clients who have particular issues they want to understand more fully. These shorter projects, typically 3-6 months, focus closely on current topical issues affect that client. Recently we have examined how County Councils might attract new and diverse forms of industry to their region, and how projects that extend across national boundaries and time zones use virtual communication to coordinate activities.
Finally, DEGW undertakes micro studies in organisations to understand the needs of a user or group of users. This research helps to determine the potential for design as a powerful catalyst for organisational change.
Understanding how user demands are changing, and the emergence of new built solutions in response to those new user demands enables DEGW to provide the best possible advice and design solutions to clients.
The methods
- Desk research and literature reviews
- Ethnographic techniques
- Industry Condition Surveys
- Post-occupancy Evaluations
- Social Network Analysis
- Time Utilisation Studies
- Workplace Performance Surveys