About Mark Eltringham

Mark is the publisher of Workplace Insight, IN magazine, Works magazine and is the European Director of Work&Place journal. He has worked in the office design and management sector for over thirty years as a journalist, marketing professional, editor and consultant.

Posts by Mark Eltringham:

July 2, 2013

Video: is this the world’s most sustainable office building?

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Environment, Facilities management, Workplace design

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What is claimed to be the world’s most sustainable office building has just achieved a platinum LEED certification. The NuOffice building in Munich was supported by the EU funded Direction project which promotes energy efficient and sustainable building design along with the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics (IBP). The focus of the building’s design is on energy efficiency and applies radiant heating and cooling technology, switchable glazing and innovative insulating material to reduce the environmental footprint and running costs of the building. The developers claim that local energy costs have increased by 50 percent over the last decade so the new building which is expected to reduce energy consumption by 90 percent can offer a substantial cost saving over conventional designs.

July 1, 2013

Office Insight announces partnership with Worktech 13

by Mark Eltringham • Company news, News

The publishers of Office Insight are pleased to announce a partnership with Worktech 13, which will be held at the British Museum in London on the 19th and 20th November. This will be the tenth annual Worktech conference staged by organisers Unwired. The conference looks at the implications of the convergence between the worlds of technology, corporate real estate, work and the workplace making it an ideal partner for Office Insight which is the UK’s most widely read specialist publication on those topics. Over the next few months Worktech and Office Insight will be publishing content from some of the world’s foremost thinkers on office design and management including Frank Duffy, Philip Ross, Dave Coplin and Greg Lindsay. Office Insight readers will also be able to take advantage of a 20 percent discount on delegate tickets. More →

June 28, 2013

Designs unveiled for new Google London headquarters in King’s Cross

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, News, Property, Workplace design

Detailed plans have been submitted for the design of the new Google London headquarters building in King’s Cross. The 1 million sq. ft scheme designed by architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris does not exceed 11 storeys at any point and will be home to up to 4,500 employees, double the company’s current London workforce and potentially making it the largest Google operation outside of New York. The scheme is part of a wider development of Kings Cross and will incorporate 750,000 sq. ft. of office space with 50,000 sq. ft. of shops and cafes. Current employees will relocate from three existing buildings in the capital. Subject to approval for the detailed design from Camden Council, who have already granted planning permission, work will begin on the site next year with completion set for 2016-2017.

Google is evidently keen to emphasise its investment in the UK, following weeks of criticism of its tax affairs from the media and politicians. Dan Cobley, Google UK’s managing director, in announcing the details of the development said: ‘Building our new headquarters in King’s Cross is good for Google and good for London.’ Certainly the deal is one of the biggest in recent years in the UK property industry, worth around £650 million and is expected by the developers to create 1,500 construction jobs and 35,000 new employment opportunities over all.

Some of the more interesting aspects of the proposed design are:

The primary way for workers to move between floors will be stairs rather than lifts as the firm looks to challenge the sedentary workstyles of staff. No news yet on any wretched slides.
The building is designed as a ‘groundscraper’ eschewing London’s recent trend for tall buildings, but is larger than the Shard at 1,083 ft long compared with the Shard’s 1,016 ft height.
Over two thirds (71 percent) of the office space are designated for workstations with the remainder set aside for meeting and breakout spaces, cafes and lobbies. Nearly half of the roof of the building will be landscaped.
The intention is to achieve a BREEAM outstanding accreditation.
The architects claims the design is inspired by the Victorian industrial heritage of the area and will act as a theatre in which the drama of Google’s business will unfold, but with stage settings that can change quickly and easily.

Commenting on the development, Simon Allford, of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, said: ‘This building is underpinned by cutting edge design intelligence and technologies to provide a sophisticated twenty first century working environment for Google’s staff. The architectural approach, which has taken inspiration from King’s Cross and St Pancras International railway stations, complements the local area’s strong industrial heritage and will be a building London can be proud of.’

June 27, 2013

Under a quarter of US staff enjoy optimal working environment, claims report

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Facilities management, Flexible working, Knowledge, Workplace design

Architecture firm Gensler has released the results of its 2013 US Workplace Survey. The report claims that under a quarter (24 percent) of US workers work in an optimised working environment with the remainder suffering from unnecessary lost productivity and a lack of innovation and engagement. The survey of more than 2,000 knowledge workers from across the US examined specific design factors across four work modes defined by Gensler: focus, collaboration, learning and socialising. The report concludes that the modern workplace has a number of new and increasingly important drivers including new technology, globalisation, generation Y and so on which define where, when and how workers perform their jobs and concludes that the ability to balance focus and collaboration with strategic workplace design is essential.

June 25, 2013

What Jeremy Clarkson can’t teach us about workforce productivity

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace

In 2011, one of Top Gear’s regular bits of lazy casual racism caused a bit more fuss than the rolling of eyes it typically deserves. The presenters had mocked a Mexican sports car with Richard Hammond – who has never said anything interesting or funny in his life – claiming that ‘cars reflect national characteristics. A Mexican car’s just going to be a lazy, feckless, flatulent oaf with a moustache, leaning against a fence asleep, looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat.’ There was a bit more of this kind of stuff with Jeremy Clarkson suggesting that the Mexican ambassador to Britain would be too lazy to make any kind of complaint. He was wrong about that (he did) and they were all wrong about Mexicans anyway because according to a new report into global productivity, Mexico has the world’s most productive workforce.

June 25, 2013

UK Government announces details of One Public Sector Estate scheme

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Public Sector

The UK Cabinet Office has announced details of a new pilot scheme covering 12 local authorities in England which will encourage councils to work with central government departments and other bodies to share buildings and re-use or release property and land deemed surplus to requirements and so cut spending and free up land for local development. The ‘One Public Sector Estate’ scheme will also enable councils to share services and follow the path of central government which has its own schemes to cut costs and divest or find new uses for its property portfolio. Chloë Smith, the Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office who will be delivering the scheme in partnership with the Local Government Association, also believes the scheme will boost the UK economy and encourage regeneration and development at a local level.

June 25, 2013

US corporate occupiers changing the size and type of office space they demand

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Flexible working, Knowledge, Property

America’s corporate occupiers are not only reducing the amount of office space they use, they are changing their requirements too according to the latest Office Occupier View report from CBRE. Not only did overall demand for commercial space fall during the first quarter of 2013 compared to the last of 2012, the average amount of space allocated to each worker is falling below 225 sq.ft. (21 sq.m.) , and occupiers are demanding more open, ‘creative’ working environments in Class A buildings with large floor plates. Occupiers are also looking for space that is ideally located in central business districts (CBDs) with easy access to transport links and amenities and offers them flexible terms.

June 20, 2013

Infographic: the uptake of flexible working and long hours is driven by BYOD

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Knowledge, Technology, Workplace

The rise of BYOD as a near universal way of using smart devices in the workplace may be problematic for employers in some ways but is attractive in others. Not only does it save the cost of providing people with stuff in the first place, it is also driving the uptake of flexible working according to a survey from software developer (what else?) Cint. And in this case, when we say flexible working, we mean long hours. According to the report, significantly more than half of workers in both the UK and US do more work away from the traditional workplace as a direct result of using their own devices. In the UK, nearly a quarter of staff feel employers like them to use their own technology to encourage more out of hours working. IN the US it is nearly a third. Full infographic below.

June 13, 2013

The most unusual product at the Neocon office furniture show? The bulletproof chair

by Mark Eltringham • Furniture, Products, Workplace design

One of the more intriguing and yet geographically constrained products at the 2013 Neocon office furniture and workplace exhibition in Chicago was the Guardian bulletproof chair. While other firms were busy picking up awards for office furniture products that protected the backs, wrists, eyes and ears of office workers, only one firm was more concerned about their major internal organs. The horrifying facts behind this product are that workplace shootings are commonplace in the US with an average of over 560 deaths annually according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fully ten percent of work related fatalities recorded in the US every year. The bulletproof chair incorporates a vest in its back which can be removed and worn or allows the chair itself to be used as a shield. It has a ten year warranty.

June 12, 2013

Niels Diffrient redefined what we know about ergonomics and office furniture

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Furniture, Workplace design

Niels Diffrient, who passed away over the weekend at the age of 84, did more than any other designer to further the principles of ergonomic design as we now understand them. He is perhaps best known for his work over the last two decades on seating for Humanscale, including the groundbreaking and truly iconic Freedom chair, but his interest in function and comfort predated that by some time. As far back as the 1950s, Diffrient was one of the first people to x-ray a human spine while its owner was sitting and moving in a chair. He discovered that people will generally adapt to whatever they are sitting on without adjusting the seat. To Diffrient this suggested that the chair should be designed to adapt to the person rather than the other way round.

June 11, 2013

Neocon 2013 announces comprehensive list of awards winners

by Mark Eltringham • Furniture, News, Products, Workplace design

It might sound like a Republican convention but in fact Neocon is the annual workplace exhibition at the giant Merchandise Mart in the centre of Chicago. And when we say ‘workplace’, we mean largely ‘office furniture’. It attracts around 700 exhibitors and 40,000 of visitors from all over the world and so can help to disseminate ideas that spring up in the US to influence design on a global scale. Many of the themes apparent at this year’s show will be familiar around the world. As well as the fact that everybody is talking about the environmental credentials of the products, the themes are direct reflections of the concerns and priorities of office occupiers and specifiers. By custom, the first day of the show is when they dish out the awards.

June 10, 2013

NeoCon and ThinkFM offer two different views of the facilities management elephant

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, Workplace design

This week sees two events taking place on opposite sides of the pond that should hold a mirror up to the way we currently design and manage workplaces. In Chicago, it’s time for NeoCon, the annual office furniture behemoth held in the vast Merchandise Mart and attracting some 40,000 visitors, while in London it’s the distinctly low-key Think FM conference from the BIFM held at the Royal College of Physicians – for today only, as they say. While these are two very different events in terms of scale, content and format and both are nakedly commercial, only one strikes me as particularly meaningful. And even that is only about the meaning of one part of the facilities management elephant.