Columnists
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. […]
March 26, 2013
Office design goes to the movies. Part 3 – Being John Malkovich
by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design
[embedplusvideo height=”200″ width=”230″ standard=”https://www.youtube.com/v/lu3sXQ9t-6c?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=lu3sXQ9t-6c&width=230&height=200&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep8940″ /] In which John Cusack plays an unemployed puppeteer who takes a mundane office clerk’s job in the low-ceilinged offices on Floor 7½ of the Mertin Flemmer Building in New York. When he asks his boss why the ceilings are so low, he is told ‘low overhead my […]
March 26, 2013
Where are the muggles in Terry Farrell’s architecture policy review?
by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Comment, Facilities management, News, Property
One of the standard complaints commonly ascribed to facilities managers and others who work to manage our buildings and the people and stuff inside them is that they are not consulted well enough when it comes to their development, architecture and design. Well, now they may have a chance to see how that all feels […]
March 25, 2013
Video: Forget Yahoo – why telecommuting is good for your business
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design
[embedplusvideo height=”157″ width=”230″ standard=”https://www.youtube.com/v/R2whPdnCGrM?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=R2whPdnCGrM&width=230&height=157&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep4389″ /] Think you’ve seen every possible angle on the recent Yahoo-ha about flexible working? Maybe not because here’s a unique take on the subject courtesy of the guys at MinuteMBA. We’d like to invite somebody to animate the other side of the argument but while we can […]
March 25, 2013
Why office furniture leasing is not necessarily a great option
by John Sacks • Comment, Furniture
It seems like a perfect idea. The business needs new desks, chairs and cupboards and that refurbishment is long overdue. Or perhaps it’s time to move and the old furniture won’t make it in one piece. The furniture supplier wants to make the sale. Business has been slow and it’s the end of the month […]
March 23, 2013
The resistance to flexible working is entirely reasonable
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design
In recent media coverage of the decision by Yahoo to ban homeworking as well as a recent survey from Microsoft, the resistance to the idea that people work better when they are allowed to work flexibly has typically been put down to cultural inertia. Sometimes those who have resisted the uptake of flexible working have […]
April 3, 2013
Five things the Wall Street Journal inadvertently told us yesterday about office design
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, Workplace design
If I were to show you a headline from the Wall Street Journal announcing ‘Say Goodbye to the Office Cubicle’, you might date it at any time between the mid 1980s and 1990s. Maybe earlier. But it was actually in yesterday’s issue, dated 2 April 2013. Now, we could be amused by this or act […]