About the Project
Sync-Space addresses growing concerns about the mental wellbeing of Europe’s increasingly distributed workforce, with employees operating across different physical and digital work environments. The project explores how these physical and digital dimensions of hybrid work can be better synchronised to improve the working conditions and mental wellbeing of hybrid workers.
Coworking spaces (CWS), with their flexible workspace concepts, professional infrastructure, community-oriented character, and positive effects on users’ mental wellbeing, are explored as spatial-digital bridges that connect physical and digital dimensions of hybrid work and support the mental wellbeing of hybrid workers.
The project’s innovation lies in developing and validating a Spatial-Digital Integration Framework (SDIF) for assessing person-environment fit in hybrid work contexts and examining its relationship with mental wellbeing, by conceptualising physical and digital work environments as a unified ecosystem rather than treating them separately.
Through an interdisciplinary methodology combining workplace management, environmental psychology and organisational behaviour research, Sync-Space employs validated psychological instruments and longitudinal wellbeing assessments across diverse CWS environments in Prague and Germany. The project aims to identify spatial, technological and environmental configurations that best support the integration of physical and digital work and the mental wellbeing of hybrid workers.
The research delivers three core outputs:
- an empirically tested SDIF framework with standardised assessment protocols,
- a Corporate Implementation Toolkit featuring design guidelines and workplace optimisation tools,
- peer-reviewed publications establishing evidence-based principles for spatial-digital integration.
By connecting the physical and digital dimensions of hybrid work, Sync-Space aims to provide a new evidence base for creating healthier environments for hybrid workers. The project will contribute to the development of CWS as spatial-digital bridges that support the mental wellbeing of increasingly distributed workforces in Europe, while enabling organisations to foster healthier hybrid work environments.
