Reimagining the workplace: three keys to wellbeing, connection, and change

Reimagining the workplace: three keys to wellbeing, connection, and change

Herman Miller has introduce a new framework that helps organisations uncover the purpose of their workplaceMiller Knoll has introduced a new framework that helps organisations uncover the purpose of their workplace. The approach addresses the human needs of employees to improve their wellbeing, fosters a sense of community and connection, and helps organisations navigate, prepare, and design for change. The firm sets out its thinking here. More →

Works Magazine issue number 8 lands

Works Magazine issue number 8 lands

The new digital issue of Works magazine is available for you to read, download, print and share right here.The new digital issue of Works magazine is available for you to read, download, print and share right here. In this issue: we report on the inaugural Works Place event at Material Matters in London in September; visit three new offices in London that show how outstanding offices are retaining their role in making the capital a great place to work; we speak to Andreu World about their partnership with design legend Philippe Starck; and catch up for a drink with our friends Rawside who are maintaining Clerkenwell’s reputation as a new design powerhouse. More →

The office needs to take on the characteristics of the city. Despina Katsikakis IN conversation

The office needs to take on the characteristics of the city. Despina Katsikakis IN conversation

Despina Katsikakis, the new President of the BCO has been shaping the way we think about offices for four decades

One of the unintended consequences of the era of online meetings is a chance to gain an insight into people’s actual lives. So it is that as Despina Katsikakis and I are talking, she spots my whippet Luna wandering into shot in the background and lets out an exclamation. She too has a whippet by her feet. And as a result, this abnormal, formal situation becomes a lot more normal and relaxed.   More →

Entry is Open for Design Guild Mark Awards 2024

Entry is Open for Design Guild Mark Awards 2024

Design Guild Mark has opened the 2024 awards, inviting designers entries in three categories: Furniture; Lighting; Interior Design ElementsThe Design Guild Mark has opened their entries for the 2024 awards, inviting designers and companies to submit entries for three categories: Furniture; Lighting; Interior Design Elements. Entry is open to British designers working in the UK or abroad, and designers with UK based design practices. Submissions can be for an individual product or a collection of products that are currently in production, that were designed for, and are manufactured by, an industrial design process. The designs can be intended for domestic, office, hospitality, educational or corporate use, and for both interior and exterior environments, and there is no restriction on when the design was launched. More →

The future of work has no destination, there is only the journey

The future of work has no destination, there is only the journey

One of the truisms about depictions of the future is that they often have more to say about the world in which we live than the one to come. So, when George Orwell wrote  Nineteen Eighty-Four the story goes that its title was derived by inverting the numbers of the year in which it was written – 1948. Whatever the truth of this, Orwell understood it was a book as much about the world in which he lived as the one it portrayed. Our images of the future are invariably refracted through the prism of the present. This is just as true for predictions about the future of work, many of which are explored in the new issue of IN Magazine.

More →

Are the days of landmark corporate headquarters over?

Are the days of landmark corporate headquarters over?

There’s something in the idea that the creation of a bespoke, landmark corporate headquarters is a sign that something has gone wrong - or is about to - for the firm behind it.There’s something in the idea that the creation of a bespoke, landmark corporate headquarters is a sign that something has gone wrong – or is about to – for the firm behind it. I’d first developed or come across this idea when visiting British Airway’s Waterside building in the late 1990s. At the time it was arguably the most talked about office building in the world, lauded for its inbuilt urban landscape, mix of settings and humane, biophilic design features. More →

From the archive: The way to create a successful workplace is simple, but never easy

From the archive: The way to create a successful workplace is simple, but never easy

This was originally published in December 2020. All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. As is now the way of these things, the famous opening words of Anna Karenina have been used to name a principle that is applied across a wide range of fields. It describes how success can only happen in one way, but failure comes in many forms. More →

ORGATEC reinvents itself for the new future of work

ORGATEC reinvents itself for the new future of work

ORGATEC, the leading international trade fair for the future of work will return in 2024 with a new event conceptORGATEC, the leading international trade fair for the future of work will return in 2024 with a new event concept that is designed to meet the evolving requirements of the world of work and is positioned even closer to the cutting edge. With a shorter duration, a new hall layout, highlight topics and digital innovations, ORGATEC will offer exhibitors and visitors a topic-centred, event-oriented and efficient trade fair experience. More →

BCO Awards dominated by South East offices yet again but Glasgow office takes top spot

BCO Awards dominated by South East offices yet again but Glasgow office takes top spot

Barclays’ Glasgow campus was celebrated as the Best of the Best at the British Council for Offices BCO AwardsBarclays’ Glasgow campus (pictured) was celebrated as the Best of the Best at the British Council for Offices (BCO) National Awards last night, also taking home the prize for Corporate Workplace. Seven further winners of BCO Awards were recognised as leading examples of excellence in workplace design in the UK. There were no winners in any category in the Midlands or North of England, Northern Ireland or Wales, although two offices in Manchester and Widnes were commended and the President’s Award went to HMRC for its ongoing national estate management programme. More →

Hybrid working is here to stay. Squawk

Hybrid working is here to stay. Squawk

I hold to the idea that nobody knows what hybrid working is, by which I mean there is no universally shared idea about what it isIn his recent book, The Constitution of Knowledge, the author Jonathan Rauch argues that knowledge consists of something about which nearly everybody can agree, and which has been arrived at by a structured, ongoing and benign process of debate and discovery. More →

Poor workplace design means a quarter of people may consider quitting job

Poor workplace design means a quarter of people may consider quitting job

A new poll claims that over a quarter (27 percent) of workers would consider leaving their job due to poor workplace designA new poll claims that over a quarter (27 percent) of workers would consider leaving their job due to poor workplace design, as an increasing number of companies phase out remote working.  Commissioned by design and architecture studio MoreySmith, the survey of 2,000 UK adults by Yonder asked the public about the importance of the office environment for their wellbeing at work. Half of those that responded said that the amenities of a workplace would impact their decision on whether to work for a company, rising to 57 percent of 25-34 year olds. More →

Herman Miller Fuld chair is the perfect solution for the present and future of work

Herman Miller Fuld chair is the perfect solution for the present and future of work

We may not always know exactly what the future of work holds, but we can design spaces that are ready for it. The Herman Miller Fuld chair is one of the products made for the new era We may not always know exactly what the future of work holds, but we can design spaces that are ready for it. The ability to respond to change is one of the most important facets of an effective design in the era of widespread hybrid working, alongside the ability to tailor a solution that meets the diverse needs of individuals for the best possible working environment at any one time. More →