Columnists
March 11, 2015
How a big, stupid idea can be more attractive than a small, effective one
by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Comment, Property
We’re going to be hearing a lot of big ideas over the next few weeks. Politicians will be sharing their ‘visions’ with us and letting us know exactly how ‘passionate’ they are about them and anything else Twitter tells them we care about. It’s going to be boring and infuriating, but we only have ourselves […]
March 9, 2015
The UK’s enduring and understandable love affair with Scandinavian design
by Justin Miller • Comment, Furniture, Lighting, Workplace design
The British have an enduring love affair with Scandinavia. From Norwegian Wood to Ikea, Abba to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and all the other manifestations of Nordic noir, the country’s love affair with everything Scandinavian shows no sign of abating any time soon. We have a particular affinity with Scandinavian design, which is both familiar […]
March 5, 2015
The financial services sector leads the way in how we think about office design
by Charles Marks • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design
The office as we know it may continue to change, but that doesn’t mean its vital role at the heart of the organisation will diminish. The recent downturn meant some tough decisions had to be taken by many companies. It certainly focussed more attention on the way firms design and manage their workplace, based on […]
March 4, 2015
Over half of workplace support staff are privy to confidential conversations
by Sara Bean • Comment, Facilities management, News, Workplace
Facilities managers often remark that ensuring their staff gain the recognition they deserve for a job well done is much less common than fielding criticism when something in the workplace goes wrong. The fact is that when support staff are doing their work well, they fade into the background. For many office workers, the people who […]
February 24, 2015
Design Museum Awards: the buildings may be accessible, but the language isn’t
by Simon Heath • Architecture, Comment, Workplace design
One of the fundamental challenges when asked to offer a critique of something is that you may find that you actually like a great deal of what you are presented with. And this is precisely the challenge offered up by the shortlist for The Designs of the Year awards, organised annually by London’s Design Museum […]
February 17, 2015
Why would you want a Google office when you can create your own?
by Maciej Markowski • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace design
Google has dramatically shaken up the world of the Internet and also changed the face of the traditional office environment forever. Nothing has ever been the same, since the ubiquitous four-colour logo first appeared on the worldwide web. Everything that Google does creates a ripple in the business world. Whether it’s giving employees 20% of […]
February 13, 2015
Our personal choices can tell us a lot about the state of the economy
by Alison Kitchingman • Comment, Products, Workplace design
The announcement by Pantone that its Colour of the Year for 2014 was a muted reddish brown called Marsala was met with the annual carping about the subjectivity of the whole thing. Yet there are two things we know for sure. One is that Pantone puts a lot of time and effort into making its decision […]
February 11, 2015
This isn’t a golden era for small business; it’s more interesting than that
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Public Sector, Technology
Yesterday, the Prime Minister’s Enterprise Advisor Lord Young produced a report into the key trends experienced by the UK’s small businesses over the past five years. According to the headline figures presented by the report, this is a ‘golden era’ for small businesses in the UK, with a record number of small firms in the country. The […]
February 9, 2015
The open plan remains an important office design element
by Paul Goodchild • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design
For half a century the default office design model in large parts of the world has been the open plan. Even though that continues to be the case, a growing number of voices are questioning this hegemony and suggesting there may be better ways of designing offices that balance the advantages of the open plan while […]
February 2, 2015
Staff calling in sick could be a symptom of management malaise
by Sara Bean • Comment, News, Wellbeing, Workplace
If your office seems strangely quiet this morning it might be due to the fact today is ‘national sickie day’. The first Monday in February is the day of the year which traditionally sees the highest number of workers calling in sick. It’s been argued that many of these people could in fact be looking […]
January 28, 2015
How well designed office hives can foster swarm intelligence
by Lee Parsons • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design
A beehive in your back-garden is hardly ideal, nor is stumbling across an ants’ nest while searching for a picnic spot. However, these swarms have become the inspiration for a revolutionary new way of working. Swarm intelligence describes how a group of people find effective solutions to difficult problems and their ability to adapt automatically to changing environments […]
March 13, 2015
It’s worth exploring alternative forms of finance for office fit out
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design
You can’t help but notice that there has been a shift in recent years for us to become the consumers of things we were once obliged or wanted to own. We watch films on Netflix, listen to music on Spotify and share cars with strangers through BlaBlaCar. As both individuals and businesses we rent software […]