Synchronizing Work and Teaching Practices with the Spatial DNA of Distributed Work and Learning

Author

Manju Aishwarya Adikesavan, The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkFollow

Date of Degree

2-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Psychology

Advisor

Laxmi Ramasubramanian

Committee Members

Brett Stoudt

Jochen Albrecht

Subject Categories

Cognition and Perception | Educational Technology | Environmental Design | Human Geography | Industrial and Organizational Psychology | Interior Architecture | Leadership | Online and Distance Education | Organizational Behavior and Theory | Real Estate | Science and Technology Studies | Technology and Innovation | Urban, Community and Regional Planning | Urban Studies and Planning

Keywords

Spatial DNA, Future of Work, Human-Environment Interactions, Urban Morphology, Campus Planning, Management

Abstract

Phygitality, the seamless and synergistic integration of physical and digital realms, is an indispensable and irrevocable part of contemporary office-based work. Phygitality facilitates spatially and temporally distributed or multi-local working where employees work from diverse locations such as their home, office, and third places at any time of day or night. It also makes nonterritorial working at temporary workspaces accessed on a session-by-session basis possible.

This dissertation examines how phygital, multi-local, and nonterritorial working reshape individual and group work behaviors, organizational spatial practices, work-centric settings, non-work-centric settings, neighborhoods, cities, and regions. The Spatial DNA of Distributed Work encapsulates a conceptual framework that theorizes distributed work-built environment interactions. This original contribution resulted from a review and synthesis of literature (N=271) from interior design, architecture, environmental psychology, environment-behavior studies, facilities management, real estate studies, business management, organizational studies, urban planning and design, and economic geography. The dissertation adopts a case-study methodology to study nonterritorial and phygital practices in office-based knowledge work. It focuses on nonterritorial and phygital knowledge creation and transmission in teaching, research, mentoring, advising, and related academic activities conducted in university faculty offices and classrooms, such as architectural design studios.

Mixed qualitative methods support the thematic analysis of hotdesking, a type of nonterritorial working popular in business and university offices. Direct and participant observation of doctoral students and contingent instructors working at hotdesks in a US public university facility (50 hours), semi-structured interviews with the hotdesk users (N=10), and archival research of public institutional data suggest worker performance and comfort are adversely impacted by the lack of workspace certainty, control, and continuity inherent in hotdesking. Interview participants identified technological, design, and managerial interventions that can provide cognitive, functional, and affective support to hotdesk workers.

Post-COVID interviews of undergraduate and graduate students (N=27) and instructors (N=32) of US architecture programs facilitate the examination of phygital work practices in the campus- based architectural design studio, focusing on phygitality’s pedagogical implications. Participants embrace the campus-based studio’s phygital functionalities by incorporating online modalities as needed. For example, participants prefer in-person or co-located studio sessions for facilitating tactile, social, and vicarious learning during lecture demonstrations, model making, and informal co-working on studio project assignments. Participants blend online and in-person modalities to extend their social, cognitive, and teaching presence and foster relational proximity during office hours, lectures, group critique sessions, and final juries.

Twenty-first-century businesses and universities must synchronize work, learning, teaching, and research practices with the Spatial DNA of Distributed Work to thrive in a phygital world. A successful transition to distributed work requires the collective and coordinated efforts of office employees and managers. Leaders and managers can facilitate the cultural transition to distributed work by aligning technological, spatial, and organizational decisions with workers' and teams' phygital, nonterritorial, and multi-local work needs. For example, nonterritorial workspaces work best when employees’ office visits are short or infrequent, usually less than three days a week. Coordinated office visits that ensure employees can collaborate and socialize with colleagues and clients in person energize hybrid workers and teams. The university case studies included in this dissertation demonstrate that prevailing culture shapes institutional responses to phygital, multi-local, and nonterritorial work practices. Since distributed work is a new workplace culture, office managers and leaders should be willing to iteratively refine distributed work practices with employee input.

The Spatial DNA of Distributed Work equips planners with the foresight required to plan for the emerging geographies of distributed work. It explains how the dispersed, intensified, improvised, and phygital facets of distributed work reshape contemporary urban, suburban, peri-urban, and rural places structured by fixed work locations and times, regular journey-to-work patterns, and segregated land use zones. The Spatial DNA of Distributed Work anchors the evaluation of the comprehensive plans of three US metros (Austin, TX, Boston, MA, and St. Louis, MO), each grappling with varying levels of tech-driven growth and development. The comparative evaluation underscores the need for reimagining commercial real estate, local economic development, and housing practices to align with the shrinking spatial footprint of offices, distributed workscapes, polyfunctional spaces, and fragmented activity patterns wrought by distributed work. The ever evolving phygitality of workplaces requires proactive and agile planning responses.

Recommended Citation

Adikesavan, Manju Aishwarya, "Synchronizing Work and Teaching Practices with the Spatial DNA of Distributed Work and Learning" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6132