Columnists
April 9, 2013
Office design goes to the movies. Part 7 – The Apartment
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design
[embedplusvideo height=”151″ width=”220″ standard=”https://www.youtube.com/v/x356ll3hTxg?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=x356ll3hTxg&width=220&height=151&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep9389″ /] In which Jack Lemmon exchanges the crushing uniformity of the open plan for a corner office as a reward for allowing senior managers to use his apartment as a venue for their infidelity. This is from 1960, the pre-cubicle, pre-VDU world of large ranks of serried workers […]
April 8, 2013
Public sector property initiatives have proved successful but work still needed
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Knowledge, Public Sector, Workplace design
There was a time, not so long ago, when nobody worried too much about the shape of the rooms that led off the corridors of power. But the pressure on UK finances has politicised the design of the UK’s public buildings. The latest example of this was the recent announcement in Parliament of a report […]
April 5, 2013
What Tesco’s move into a Clerkenwell office tells us about how it sees itself
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Property, Technology
If Tesco ever wants to update its three word strapline from Every Little Helps, it could plump for something more accurate such as We Own You. Unless Facebook or Google register it first, of course. The news this week that the extensively diversified retailer is to set up an office for its digital operations in […]
April 4, 2013
Office design goes to the movies. Part 6 – Playtime
by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design
[embedplusvideo height=”192″ width=”220″ standard=”https://www.youtube.com/v/Qifl9saFtSw?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=Qifl9saFtSw&width=220&height=192&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep6472″ /] One of the few films to address office design as something worth commenting on per se. A film in which M. Hulot stumbles around a modernist dream of Paris, all glass, steel and cold straight lines. People inhabit box like apartments and box like office cubicles which separate […]
April 3, 2013
Office furniture leases are actually readily available
by Steve Russell • Comment, Furniture
The article from John Sacks from 25th March bemoaned the fact that leasing is essentially useless for furniture projects on the basis that no banks are interested in funding such assets. I am delighted to inform John, and more importantly, the broader readership of Office Insight that this assertion couldn’t be further from the truth. […]
April 3, 2013
Ergonomic update: Are you taking the tablets?
by Sara Bean • Comment, Facilities management, Knowledge, Legal news, Technology, Workplace
Twenty years ago the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 came into force, introduced in response to a growing number of complaints of repetitive strain injury (RSI), or to use the broader term musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) amongst office workers. Although it took time for the disorder to be identified, the message gradually got […]
March 29, 2013
Office design goes to the movies. Part 4 – Ikiru
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design
Akira Kurosawa’s film typifies the way that office life is usually portrayed in movies. The crushing bureaucracy that the protagonist Kanji Watanabe is part of – and ultimately rebels against – is symbolised by the towering piles of paper that surround him and his colleagues. Even when he’s walking around, he seems to be carrying them […]
March 29, 2013
We shape the world’s cities, then they shape us
by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Comment, Knowledge, Property
The story of the world’s cities is often told not in words but in numbers. This is especially the case with the megacities – those with a population in excess of 10 million – which obtain enough critical mass not only to produce eye boggling statistics but also to distort the fabric of whole regions […]
March 28, 2013
Our hardwired response to patterns can be a useful trait for designers
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design
Our ability to recognise patterns is hardwired. We instinctively and often unconsciously look for patterns everywhere. Where none exist we often impose them, grouping things together according to their colour, shape, texture, number, taste, smell, touch or function. We do this to make sense of the world and to understand what goes on around us. […]
April 10, 2013
What the CIFF 2013 show taught us about workplaces in China
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flooring, Furniture, Workplace design
You can tell a lot about how we work by the things with which we choose to surround ourselves. That is why it always pays to keep an eye on the world’s major office products shows. So, while eyes are trained on Milan this week for the international furniture fair, John Sacks offers us a view […]