Columnists
February 17, 2019
Landlords must respond in new ways to the changing world of work
by Ben Gillam • Comment, Technology, Workplace design
Hammocks, remote working, hot-desking. Contrary to common belief, these aren’t the only conversations landlords are having with designers on how to approach their workspaces for today’s tenants. Rising property values, the growth of flexible offices and political uncertainty have forced landlords to change the way they market their properties to respond to the demands of […]
February 14, 2019
Digital transformation requires more than just new technology
by Arnab Banerjee • Comment, Technology
Digital transformation has been a priority for businesses for many years, primarily to benefit from the opportunities presented by a mix of digital technologies and their impact across all aspects of society. Customer-facing functions such as sales, marketing and procurement, in their quest for new revenue sources and information-powered ecosystems of value, have led the […]
February 11, 2019
The wider debate about workplaces gives facilities managers a chance to crack the code
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management
The most vocal debate that has followed the BIFM’s change of identity to the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management remains that focused on the issue of taxonomy. We are being asked to consider, as part of a sometimes bad mannered debate, whether facilities management is part of the workplace ecosystem or vice versa and which profession […]
February 8, 2019
Finding the Goldilocks Point for collaborative workplace design
February 7, 2019
Maybe the time has come to shoot the workplace messenger
by Rob Harris • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design
I spent some time with Frank Duffy recently, releasing a stream of memories of working with him, first as an employee at DEGW during the 1980s, and then as a client while directing developer Stanhope’s research programme during the 1990s. Along with his long-term business partner, John Worthington, and thinkers including Franklin Becker, Gerald Davis, […]
February 4, 2019
Getting back to environmental basics in the Anthropocene era 0
by Alison Kitchingman • Comment, Environment, Facilities management, Workplace design
A new word has recently entered the public discourse on the environment. It describes the current epoch of geological time as the period in which humans have had an impact on the world’s climate, geology and ecosystems. Although yet to be formally recognised by the mainstream scientific community, it has been in existence for a […]
January 31, 2019
Get ready for the next wave of technological innovation, or get left behind
by Bruce Barclay • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Technology
The natural world is a story of constant change and evolution. Animals, plants, insects and micro-organisms exist in an ecosystem, adapting to relentless changes in their environment, influenced by habitat, climate and their cohabitors. They respond to change faster than the human world, because they are not tied by the same restraints and conventions. They […]
January 25, 2019
The state of the workplace right now? Everywhere and nowhere, baby 0
by Paul Carder • Comment, Facilities management, Features, Premium Content, Property, Workplace design
My trade is to ask questions about the workplace then make sense of the answers. That has been a particular challenge with the question, ‘what are offices today?’ What seems clear is that the various actors in the workplace ecosystem look at offices through very different eyes. Urban planning and development professionals still view offices […]
January 24, 2019
Australian designers are fundamentally reshaping workplaces around the world
by Bronte Turner • Comment, Workplace design
Earlier this year, the QS World University Rankings revealed that the University of Melbourne, the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales are better places to study architecture and the built environment than some Ivy League universities. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for eight of the top 20 architecture schools from the region. […]
January 23, 2019
Work’s not working; to be productive we need to get creative
by Zoe Humphries • Comment, Workplace design
Productivity in the UK workforce is dropping; output per hour fell 0.4 per cent in the last quarter of 2018 compared with the previous and grew just 0.2 per cent on the third quarter of 2017, according to the Office for National Statistics. Yet the UK workforce log the longest hours in Europe, working 42.3 […]
February 18, 2019
Employers need to become active listeners to improve mental health at work
by Brendan Street • Comment, Wellbeing
Time to Talk Day takes place every February and encourages people to open-up about their emotional wellbeing, but in a workplace setting this can be challenging. Despite 80 percent of employers believing employees would feel comfortable talking about their mental health, only 5 percent of employees would do so. Clearly there’s a disconnect between talkers […]