Meatspace, cyberspace, the uncertainty of expertise and some other stuff

Meatspace, cyberspace, the uncertainty of expertise and some other stuff

by • Features, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

The sign that somebody knows their stuff about a subject is often that whatever they say about it is full of questions, equivocations and caveats. They’ll often start out by saying things are complicated in mitigation of their opinion on a particular topic. They’ll say there are no silver bullets. It’s almost always neophytes, chancers and the conflicted that offer certainty. To prove my point here is David D’Souza of the CIPD making a point about the tendency to look for pat, narrow solutions to complex, broad challenges. Not only does he have something interesting to say, you know that he has the depth and breadth of knowledge to expand on each of the points he makes with yet more sophistication. It’s fractal thinking.

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Getting a better handle on the psychology of office design

Getting a better handle on the psychology of office design

by • Architecture, Comment, Workplace design

It was the Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa who described the door handle as ‘the handshake of the building’ in his book The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. Buildings greet us in other ways too and we respond to those greetings in very human ways. So much so, in fact, that when we make decisions about the ways in which offices introduce themselves, we should take account of the psychological factors that can mean the difference between a successful or failed office design.  More →

Bruntwood launches design now, pay later service for occupiers

Bruntwood launches design now, pay later service for occupiers

by • Company news, Property, Workplace design

Property and flexible office firm Bruntwood has launched ‘Made & Managed’ which it claims is a service enabling occupiers to benefit from a ‘design now, pay later’ approach to designing and creating bespoke offices. The service is based around the idea that tenants absorb design and fit-out costs into a monthly bill, meaning no upfront costs.

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New Deloitte London office: a world-leading building for sustainability and wellbeing

New Deloitte London office: a world-leading building for sustainability and wellbeing

by • Company news, Environment, Workplace design

Deloitte’s new UK and North West Europe headquarters at 1 New Street Square, EC4, is claimed to be the largest office in the world to achieve leading certifications for being both an exemplar green building and one designed to enhance the wellbeing of its people. The new 270,000 sq ft HQ, which Deloitte occupied in July, is the culmination of a four year programme redefining the workplace of the future for the firm’s people and clients. The space was designed by ID:SR with furniture supplied by Sketch Studios.

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People are great: a conversation with James Woudhuysen on the future of work

People are great: a conversation with James Woudhuysen on the future of work 0

by • Features, Podcasts, Technology, Workplace design

At a conference at the WWF’s Living Planet Centre in Woking staged by the office furniture firm Kinnarps, I had an off the cuff chat with James Woudhuysen who had just delivered one of his typically entertaining, erudite and challenging talks on the future of work alongside equally renowned speakers such as Philip Tidd and Namrata Krishna from architecture firm Gensler. James is an academic, writer, commentator and (dread word) futurologist. More →

Promotion: Humanscale opens new Manchester showroom

Promotion: Humanscale opens new Manchester showroom

by • Company news, Furniture, Workplace design

Humanscale has opened the doors to its latest showroom in the City of Manchester, reinforcing its presence in the North of England. Located in the Old Town, formerly home to the famous Factory Records label, this is Humanscale’s second showroom in the UK this year, after moving to a new space in the heart of London’s design quarter. When Humanscale originally put down roots in Clerkenwell in 2001 it was the first outpost beyond North America.

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The best office designs of 2018, the future of work in 2019, and some other clickbait

The best office designs of 2018, the future of work in 2019, and some other clickbait

by • Features, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

This week’s beachcomb of the best workplace stories is brought to you in the wake of the first flood of retrospectives and predictions that wash up in the media at this time of year. The first piece of flotsam [sound of a metaphor snapping] is Dezeen’s listing of the world’s best office designs of 2018, which appears to be based on the answers to three questions. Is it a coworking space? Does it look like an office? Is there anybody actually working there? Answer yes, no, no to those three simple questions and you’re in the frame.

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Seven reasons why this will not be the office of the future

Seven reasons why this will not be the office of the future

by • Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, Workplace design

At this time of year, it seems like we don’t have to wait more than a few hours before some or other organisation is sharing its prognosis about how we will be working in the future. The thing these reports usually share in common, other than a standardised variant of a title and a common lexicon of agility, engagement and connectivity, is a narrow focus based on their key assumptions about what the office of the future will be like. While these are rarely false per se, and often offer valuable insights, they also frequently exhibit a desire to look at only one part of the great workplace elephant. While the more informed reports make excellent points and identify trends,  across most there are routine flaws in thinking that can lead them to make narrow and sometimes incorrect assumptions and so draw similarly flawed conclusions. Talk of the office of the future tells us rather a lot about how we view offices right now.

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Accelerating rate of digital tech and smart buildings to transform the built environment

Accelerating rate of digital tech and smart buildings to transform the built environment

by • AI, Cities, Facilities management, News, Technology, Workplace design

Accelerating rate of technological change will have big impact on built environmentTechnology is in the process of transforming almost every aspect of society, with change happening at an “accelerating rate,” and this is being made possible due of simultaneous rapid advances in several key areas of technology. This is according to a new White Paper on ‘Megatrends: Smart Building Technology’ from BSRIA (registration required) that predicts this will have a huge impact on construction and building services; from the way buildings are constructed to how they are managed and interact with occupants. More →

Siemens new Swiss campus showcases workplace technology and use of BIM in construction

Siemens new Swiss campus showcases workplace technology and use of BIM in construction

by • Case studies, Company news, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace design

Siemens AG has officially opened its new campus in Zug, Switzerland. The Siemens Zug campus features a new office building with 1,000 work spaces and a newly constructed production building. The investment volume for new buildings, renovations and related measures amounts to CHF 250 million. The campus is the international headquarters of the Siemens Building Technologies (BT) Division, which has 29,000 employees. Construction of the office and production buildings began in May 2016 and was completed in July 2018. The Siemens Zug campus is one of the first new projects to use Building Information Modeling (BIM) for design and construction. The digital twin – a 3D model of the building, enhanced with technical information relevant for later operations – is the foundation for efficient, cost-optimised and forward-looking building management. More →

Core Innovation Hub secures funding to transform the way buildings are designed, built and managed

Core Innovation Hub secures funding to transform the way buildings are designed, built and managed

by • Architecture, Facilities management, News, Property, Workplace design

An alliance of experts specialising in digital, manufacturing, building performance standards and construction technology has been awarded leadership of a new national Hub to drive innovation and technological advances in the UK construction and infrastructure sectors. Following a nationwide competition, Innovate UK has awarded £72 million to the Transforming Construction Alliance to deliver a national Core Innovation Hub, a key element of the Transforming Construction programme. The alliance brings together the specialist expertise of the MTC (Manufacturing Technology Centre), BRE (Building Research Establishment) and the CDBB (University of Cambridge Centre for Digital Built Britain).

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I’m a designer and I job share with an AI

I’m a designer and I job share with an AI

by • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

Thomas Edison is credited with the phrase “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration” and I believe there is no field where this applies more than architecture and design. So often people assume that interior design is such a fun, creative job – that it’s all about drawing, colours and furniture, something like being paid to colour in and shop – when today being a designer is just as much about people management, psychology, project management, documentation, checking codes and standards and managing contracts.  It’s also often about a culture that expects long hours and being always available to the job. “It’s not work when you are passionate about it?” is common. But what if instead we could all work less hours and job share with our computers?

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