November 21, 2014

CIBSE updates guide to engineering maintenance and management of buildings

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Updated guidance for designers, maintainers, facilities managers and building owners on the operation and maintenance of engineering services has been issued by CIBSE. Guide M: Maintenance Engineering and Management supersedes the first edition published in 2008 to provide best practice for those who have responsibility for the management and maintenance of the engineering services in a building. It is written for anyone involved in the design and construction of buildings to raise awareness of the implications their decisions have on management and maintenance. The main areas of revision relate to legislation changes and changes in best practice. The guidance continues the work of the CIBSE Maintenance Task Group chaired by Joanna Harris, and intends to close the gap between design and operation by bringing maintenance into a sharper focus and helping building and property operators become more aware of their responsibilities and duties. The ultimate aim is to help clients by managing their expectations and maximising impact from their annual spends on maintenance and management of buildings.

November 20, 2014

Land Securities takes full control of Thomas More Square for £85.3m

by Sara Bean • Company news, Facilities management, News, Property

Land Securities has taken full control of Thomas More Square, in London’s E1 for £85.3 million. It acquired the 50 per cent share it doesn’t already own from an affiliate of its joint venture partner the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board. The Thomas More Square Estate, which is located between St Katharine Docks and London Dock – totals approximately 4.2 acres and includes six office buildings incorporating retail, leisure and parking. Land Securities was granted planning permission in June 2014 for a comprehensive refurbishment of Building 3 at Thomas More Square and a redesign of the estate’s public realm. The plans for the 570,000 sq ft estate include 200,000 sq ft of fully refurbished office and retail space in Building 3 which will include a new double height entrance and an extensive business lounge. Tenants Ipsos MORI and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (“MOL”) have already let 97,000 sq ft of Building 3 on 15 year leases with 10 year breaks; while a further 100,000 sq ft will be available from mid-2015. More →

November 19, 2014

Worktech 14 London focuses on wellbeing, wherever we choose to work

by Sara Bean • Comment, Events, Facilities management, Flexible working, Wellbeing

The variety of ways in which technology can help us thrive at work was one of the key themes of the first day of Worktech 14, which also provided yet more evidence that the workplace is no longer based in any one place. There were some interesting ruminations on the changing values of the workplace, which included the challenges of managing mobile working and its wider effects on our wellbeing; a topic that merited a whole series of sessions, including, how office design can aide brain function; analysing the psychological effects of the ‘always on’ culture and the role of the employer in combating the rise in western obesity. Meeting room no-shows run at around 35% for most companies and in an illuminating co-presentation on estates utilisation with Condeco, Bruce Everest of Vodafone described how the mobile giant has transformed its offices into collaborative space. There were also some thought provoking sessions that peered into the future, including the statement by a speaker from none other than Intel that ‘technology alone is not our salvation’ and a fascinating glimpse into the workplace of 2040 provided by Marie Puybaraud of Johnson Controls. More →

November 19, 2014

Group of UK’s major employers urges widespread uptake of flexible working

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace design

Some of the UK’s largest companies are jointly spearheading the call for the greater uptake of flexible working. On Monday, the 22 companies that make up the Agile Future Forum highlighted the role that factors such as new technology, changing demographics and globalisation are having on the business case for the adoption of agile working practices. Firms such as John Lewis, ITV, Ford, Tesco, Lloyds, BT and B&Q are championing the cause of agile working as a way of running a business that is competitive, productive, attractive to employees and able to compete on the world stage. The AFF, set up by former Lloyds chairman Sir Win Bischoff, used the event to publish its latest research to highlight the ways in which it believes the UK is one of the best-placed countries to foster flexible working in spite of a range of recalcitrant and restrictive working practices. The event cited a recent CBI survey which found that while 97 per cent of UK businesses agree that agility is key to growth, many still offer a limited range of flexible working practices.

November 17, 2014

The new issue of Insight is now available to view in your browser

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Facilities management, Newsletter, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

The new issue of our weekly newsletter is now available to view online. This week, Simon Heath asks whether we are really so ready to swap the rat race for a life of indolent uselessness (and possibly edible obsolescence); we report on the failure of a large number of major EU institutions to act on their own green building initiatives; Helen Strother visits the new offices of AutoTrader in Manchester as the company switches to a solely digital platform; Cathy Hayward reports from Workplace Week; Sara Bean finds that the turmoil in the UK commercial property is ongoing, especially in London; and we report on the ongoing and unresolved tensions created by the practice of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and ubiquity of open plan offices. If you don’t already receive a copy, please sign up using the simple subscription form in the right hand sidebar and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

November 14, 2014

Twice as many employees will use BYOD by 2018, predict analysts

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Technology

By 2018, there will twice as many bring-your-own devices (BYOD) used at work than employer-owned laptops. However, when designing BYOD programmes, employers need to ensure that they target users who have interest and propensity to use a wider choice of devices for work and feel relatively at easy with technology. According to Gartner, throughout 2017, 90 per cent of organisations will support some aspect of BYOD, and predicts that by 2018 there will be twice as many employee-owned devices used for work than enterprise-owned devices. The analysts says this is because tablets (BYOD) offer better opportunities than that of enterprise owned-laptops and smartphones, as IT departments can support nearly three times more users in tablet BYOD programs than enterprise-owned devices. BYO smartphone programmes have a total cost of ownership that is very similar to those of enterprise-owned smartphones, but will only deliver savings when the organisation is in a position to pay partial, or do not reimburse or subsidise for voice and data plans. More →

November 14, 2014

EU institutions are not implementing their own green building policies

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, Facilities management, News, Public Sector

According to a report on EU news site euractiv.com, the various institutions of the European Union have been ‘unambitious’ in terms of delivering energy efficiency as part of their own buildings strategies. That is the key finding of a new study from the European Court of Auditors. which claims that green building standards and initiatives developed and promoted by the EU are not consistently employed for new buildings or as part of major renovation projects carried out by bodies such as the European Commission, European Parliament, EU Council and other institutions. The special report reveals shortcomings in the approach of these bodies, calls on the EU Commission to propose a common policy for reducing the carbon footprint of EU institutions and bodies and proposes the setting of an overall reduction target for greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030. The report claims that it is through the design processes of a new building, or for a major renovation, that the greatest impact can be made on its energy performance and this should be the focus of its proposed new approach.

November 13, 2014

Case Study: AutoTrader motors into its new Manchester digital playground

by Mark Eltringham • Case studies, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace design

Even in the context of a rapidly declining print market, the decision to end AutoTrader’s 37-year history as a printed magazine was not an easy one to take. At its height, Auto Trader had a circulation of 368,000, but in June 2013 the final printed copy rolled off the presses and the business began its new incarnation as a purely digital platform. Of course, this transformation was a long time in the making and had actually begun ten years earlier. By the time the print room lights went out, all of Auto Trader’s revenues had not only migrated online, but experienced significant growth too. It is Auto Trader’s growth during this process of transformation that is considered so unique in the publishing world and is proof that the business’ aspiration to be at the forefront of the digital marketplace is not just a wide-eyed intention. The website boasts 11.5million unique users, carrying out more than 140 million searches across mobile, table and desktop devices and the business is set to launch an extensive TV advertising campaign on boxing day.

November 13, 2014

Workplace Week focuses on the office and individual productivity in all its forms

by Cathy Hayward • Events, Facilities management, Flexible working, Workplace, Workplace design

The holy grail of improving people’s productivity was the focus of this year’s Workplace Week, which took place last week from 3-7th November and raised more than £12,500 for Children in Need. The annual event organised by AWA and designed as a celebration of workplace innovation, included visits to 11 workplaces showcasing the latest techniques to get people performing at their very best, a day-long convention and a series of Fringe events. Andrew Mawson, who heads up AWA, opened the convention by setting the discussion in context. “We have maximised asset productivity by getting more people into buildings, and therefore working a building harder. But we need to focus on human productivity. If each organisation could make each person just 5 per cent more productive, that would have a major impact both on that organisation and the wider economy. In the knowledge economy we need to get the very best performance out of each and every brain on the payroll and to create the conditions that consciously support that.

November 12, 2014

2015 looks set to deliver lowest volumes of London office space in 20 years

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

The total amount of office space under construction in central London is down to 7.7 million sq ft, with next year looking to deliver the lowest volumes of space in twenty years. However, according to the London Office Crane Survey, published by Deloitte Real Estate, 22 new schemes (2.1 million sq ft) have started construction in the last six months, almost double the volume of new space started compared to the previous six months. Steve Johns, head of City leasing at Deloitte Real Estate, said: “The sharpest rise in construction starts is in the City of London, where ten new office buildings are now underway. This includes over a million sq ft in the City core and over 500,000 sq ft in ‘tech city’, accounting for three quarters of the volume of space across all the new schemes we’ve recorded. The West End has also seen 10 new starts, adding 462,000 sq ft to the development pipeline, while Southbank, Midtown and Docklands have seen no new construction this survey.”

November 11, 2014

Current issue of Work&Place explores intersecting worlds of people, place and tech

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Cities, Facilities management, Technology, Work&Place, Workplace design

As we prepare the upcoming issue of Work&Place (don’t forget to subscribe on our homepage), a reminder that the September issue of Work&Place is available to download or view as a PDF or now in an online edition. Amongst this issue’s highlights are: Ian Ellison’s retrospective of last Summer’s Workplace Strategy Summit; Jim Ware offers up a case study of workplace transformation at NEF from the perspective of the firm’s CEO; Agustin Chavez and Laurie Aznavoorian consider how the workplace can help firms to manage knowledge; David Karpook meanwhile characterises the role of the facilities manager as akin to that of a stage manager; Wim Pullen explores the multi-generational workplace using empirical evidence; Erik Jaspers looks at how workers are colonising the world’s cities; Pawel Lenart and Dominika Kowalska report on how one specific country – Poland – has seen a transformation in the way it creates and uses workplaces over the past twenty years; and, on related themes Nancy Sanquist explains how IFMA is driving the agenda on urban FM and Charles Marks looks at how the UK’s regions are looking to capitalise on the Smart Cities movement.

November 7, 2014

The new issue of the Insight weekly newsletter is now available to view online

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Newsletter, Property, Workplace design

The new issue of our weekly newsletter is now available to view online. With an unmistakable focus on workplace design, this issue sponsored by Fresh Workspace, sees Tony Ash of Vitra UK question why the Government isn’t doing more to curb the furniture copycats who brazenly steal other people’s intellectual property; Alison Kitchingman of Milliken looks at how architects and designers have used organic design to reflect the way people actually move around a building; Justin Miller of Wellworking considers a startling 20 percent leap in the number of people reporting musculoskeletal disorders in the UK; Anna King looks back on Orgatec and its key themes; Sara Bean reports on the rapidly declining availability of Grade A commercial property across the UK; and Mark Eltringham considers the science behind what makes offices so motivating for people. If you don’t already receive a copy, please sign up using the simple subscription form in the right hand sidebar and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.