March 9, 2023

Progress depends on heterodox thought and difficult questions

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

Between the 9th and 13th Centuries, the world’s intellectual centre and the source of much of its progress, discovery and achievement was Baghdad. This was the Muslim Golden Age and at its core was the House of Wisdom, established by the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. At one point, this library housed the largest collection of books on Earth and drew the greatest minds in the world to share ideas, innovate and explore ancient sources of science and wisdom from Greek and Persian texts. Muslim, Jewish, Christian and atheist scholars worked together to advance human understanding until a slow decline culminated with a later Caliph declaring that its diversity of thought should bow to a literal interpretation of the Quran and Hadith.

(more…)

March 1, 2023

The rise of the pods shows how the workplace pendulum swings

by Ben Capper • Comment, Workplace design

Long before the office died (I read its obituary in several publications) there were hotly contested debates about open plan offices. That is of course before those debates were eclipsed by more current workplace rantings (ask the editor). Skimming through the open-plan office timeline, Herman Miller launched action office, L-shaped desks with screens became shared benches, and decades later tech brands rolled out efficient open-plan workspaces around the globe, with Facebook creating the biggest open-plan office of all time with 2,800 employees. Gulp. Open plan officer workers and workplace professionals moaned about acoustics, stress, and more recently, germs in large open workspaces. (more…)

February 17, 2023

BCO specification guide updated to reflect demand for flexible, green, healthier offices

by Neil Franklin • News, Property, Workplace design

Responding to what it claims are challenges emerging from the pandemic and the accelerating need for the built environment to respond to climate change, the British Council for Offices (BCO) has released an early update to its Guide to Specification, which provides expert advice on how designers can create healthier offices that support changing working patterns, while reducing carbon emissions.

(more…)

February 15, 2023

Workspace Design Show returns (and so do we)

by Mick Jordan • Events, Features, Flooring, Furniture, Lighting, Workplace design

A few of you may already know this story. It was some 15 months ago and three old friends met up for the first time in quite a while (well, we had been through lockdowns etc). Having caught up with each other’s news, the subject turned to industry journals, what the three friends felt the market was missing and the possibility of collaborating in the not too distant future. That conversation occurred at the inaugural Workspace Design Show – which the three amigos were all hugely impressed by. The result of that conversation (and a few more chats and meets, of course) is Works. So, here we are, all those months later, pulling together a preview of the 2023 edition of WDS, which – we’re delighted to say – we’re very much a part of. And we don’t just partner with any one, you know. (more…)

February 8, 2023

Herman Miller launches height-adjustable tables for home and office use

by Freddie Steele • News, Workplace design

Height-adjustable tables have become a staple in the home and office environment, offering users variety and comfort regardless of the tasks at hand. These pieces offer immense flexibility, but what if that flexibility could be pushed even further? What if a table could naturally provide more mobility, agility and range, broadening its multi-use capabilities—creating an instant workspace? Herman Miller’s Passport Work Table, the brand’s newest table offering, is designed to do all of that—all while keeping space prioritization top of mind. (more…)

February 2, 2023

Floored by design. The new issue of Works magazine goes where angels fear to tread

by Mick Jordan • News, Premium Content, Workplace design, Works Magazine

Just what is it that you want to do? People of a certain age will know what answers come next. The rest of you can scroll down to find out. At least two-thirds of those responses still resonate when you ask people want they want from their work and workplaces. They wanna be free to do what they wanna do. And they wanna have a good time. And that’s what they’re gonna do. These are the exact same responses you hear when THE great, existential questions facing the office sector and occupiers are brought up along with those others that follow on from them. What is the office for, how should we design it, what does it do better than other places of work and what do people really want from it? (more…)

January 27, 2023

Issue 13 of IN Magazine celebrates ten years of workplace insight

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, Facilities management, News, Premium Content, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

The new issue of In Magazine has now been published. It marks ten years of Workplace Insight with a few things we think we know about work, working culture and work places. Elsewhere in this issue: Stephanie Fitzgerald talks about the unspoken privilege of wellbeing; we consider the sprawl of the world’s megacities; Jo Knight argues that the office sector needs to really up its game on the environment; Rene Stevens makes the case for a strategic approach to learning environments; we weigh up the pros and cons of retrofit and new builds; Neil Usher sets out to develop a universally acceptable definition of hybrid working; Andy Brown on what we really need data for; why dead tech hangs around; and we do the maths on what it means when people say the office should be worth the commute it takes to get to it. (more…)

January 27, 2023

Logovisual feature-packed mobile walls designed to divide and connect

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

The ThinkingWall Divider range from Logovisual is a collection of sleek, stable mobile dividing walls featuring web connected AV technology, drywipe surface and storage. The units are large enough to work alone or in pairs as a divider, but easy to move around to reconfigure space. Use ThinkingWall Dividers to split larger areas with no need for any floor or ceiling mounting. Create focus areas where teams can gather round the drywipe board without the need for a wall to mount to. The mobile walls are multi-functional, practical and fit perfectly with a modern hybrid work environment. (more…)

January 27, 2023

New lighting guide updated to embrace era of hybrid working

by Jayne Smith • Facilities management, Lighting, News, Workplace design

The Society of Light and Lighting has launched the latest Lighting Guide 07 (LG7): Offices [paywall for non CIBSE members]. There have been considerable developments since the previous edition, published in 2015. The new guide considers hybrid working, addressing uncertainty around how office space will be used in the future. With increased hybrid working and the use of portable devices, people are spending less time at their desks and in the office. This revision of Lighting Guide 7 now includes home office lighting advice. (more…)

January 24, 2023

Offices valued as a place to get work done, not just connect

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Workplace design

The latest Workplace Survey from the Gensler Research Institute sets out to explore how employees are spending their time as they return to the office, how offices can more successfully support them, and the strategic design interventions that will have the biggest impact on the workplace experience. As companies consider the future of their workplaces, the new data suggests that U.S. employees are looking for offices that are both highly effective and offer a desirable mix of experiences. The highest-performing workplaces are those that support all modes of work, offer a wide range of experiences, and are located in amenity-rich buildings and/or neighbourhoods. (more…)

January 13, 2023

How the 21st Century office was born in post war Europe

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Workplace design

There was a curious addition to a 2016 report on the Top 10 Technologies Driving the Digital Workplace from tech researchers Gartner. It wasn’t a technology at all but rather a slightly obscure office design concept that originated in Hamburg in the late 1950s, but which tells us a lot about how we work in the 21st Century office, according to Gartner. Its history lies with the German consulting firm Quickborner. Led by the brothers Eberhard and Wolfgang Schnelle, the firm applied the egalitarian principles of the post war world and rejection of the scientific management theories that had created the familiar factory-like rows of desks that had come to dominate open plan offices to create something more in tune with the new age.

(more…)

December 20, 2022

Never mind the workplace predictions, here’s some bollocks

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

Time of the year for looking backwards and forwards. For workplace predictions and retrospectives. The Economist announces that the word / term of the year is hybrid work. This is interesting because, although The Economist is using it as an interchangeable term for flexible working as many do, a great deal of energy is still expounded on defining exactly what it means. We may work out when the obsession with three days in the office, two at home thing started. But for now, determining where people are at any given time doesn’t seem very flexible to me. (more…)