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Cooling advice issued on managing soaring workplace temperatures

Cooling advice on managing higher workplace temperatures

We’d managed to avoid the topic “isn’t it really hot” on Office Insight but as the UK heat-wave enters its third week it’s become impossible to ignore. Employers are being urged by unions to relax workplace dress codes, with the TUC calling for the introduction of a maximum workplace temperature of 30C – or 27C for those doing strenuous work. Under current health and safety law, workplaces can’t legally fall below 16C but there is no upper limit. The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) meanwhile, has issued a new guide that provides greater understanding and improved prediction of overheating in commercial buildings.

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The challenge in Silicon Alley is providing the right quantity and quality of office space

M4 Silicon AlleyNews emerges from BNP Paribas that the most dynamic occupiers in Western European property markets belong to the technology, media and telecoms (TMT) sector and that the most important market in the region is London. This comes as no surprise given the plans of Google to move to its new home in King’s Cross and the focus on developments in Tech City. But the same hothousing of TMT businesses is also evident in the area Prime Minister David Cameron has referred to as Silicon Alley, a cluster of businesses running alongside the M4 originally clustered between Reading and Swindon but now extending as far as Bristol. Companies that have found a home in the area include the likes of Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, Ericsson, Vodafone, O2, Citrix, Dell, Huawei, Lexmark, LG, Novell, Nvidia, Panasonic, SAP and Symantec not to mention the countless other smaller businesses, consultants and freelancers that share this hothouse.

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Latest edition of Insight newsletter available to view online

Office Insight announces partnership with WorkTech 13

In the latest issue of the Insight newsletter we are pleased to announce a partnership with Worktech 13, which will be held at the British Museum in London on the 19th and 20th November. Over the next few months look out for content from some of the world’s foremost thinkers on office design and management including Frank Duffy, Philip Ross, Dave Coplin and Greg Lindsay. Also this week, according to two new property reports the London office market continues to thrive; why flexible workers may be limiting their career prospects and how desk size can influence behaviour. Regular contributor Simon Heath warns that the BIFM partnership with DWP may prove an ill-advised and short-lived union and Mark Eltringham hails the Design Museum’s move to the long empty Commonwealth Institute building in Kensington. To view this week’s newsletter click here.

Design Museum sale paves way for resurrection of Commonwealth Institute

Commonwealth InstituteDeskheads of a certain vintage may have viewed the news that Zaha Hadid had bought the Design Museum’s London home for £10 million in a somewhat different light to much of the media that reported the sale. While journalists succumbed to the apparently irresistible pull of architectural headline magnet Zaha, to some of us the interesting part of the story was that the sale finally freed the Design Museum to move to the long empty Commonwealth Institute building in Kensington. The building is one of the most architecturally important modern buildings in London and has a long association not only with The Commonwealth Institute educational charity but as a venue for cultural events and exhibitions of design, not least the now defunct Prima and Spectrum exhibitions which did so much to promote commercial interior design in the UK.

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Landmark Lloyd’s building sold to Chinese insurance firm in commercial property deal

Landmark Lloyd's building sold to Chinese insurance firm

The iconic Richard Roger’s-designed Lloyd’s Building at One Lime Street, London EC3, has been sold to Ping An, a Chinese insurance company for £260 million, it’s been confirmed. The Lloyd’s Building will continue to house the world’s leading insurance market as it is let in its entirety to the Society of Lloyd’s on a lease expiring in 2031. Jon Crossfield, director within Savills’ Central London team, says “This is a potentially landmark transaction, given it is the first by a Chinese Insurance company overseas.  It is a high profile and confident entry to the market for them and further illustrates the dominance of overseas investors in London at present.” The commercial property deal, which represents the first purchase by a Chinese insurance company in the UK was managed by Commerz Real and advised by Savills and CBRE.

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The world’s enduring love hate relationship with its tall buildings

Jean Nouvel Duo Towers in Paris

Jean Nouvel Duo Towers in Paris

One day, news will emerge from Dubai of a new development that doesn’t break some record or other, or at least one that isn’t solely about the size of a building. The latest example of the Emirati obsession with scale is the plan by developers DMCC, the people who brought you the Jumeirah Lake Towers, to create the world’s largest commercial office building as part of a 107,000 sq m development of their business park. Although still in the development stage, the developers have their eyes on usurping the current holder of the tallest office crown, Taipei 101, the 509m-high building which was the world’s tallest tower of any sort until the Burj Khalifa came along in 2010. In their press announcement the developers claim the new tower will act as a magnet for multinationals, although not everybody is quite so enamoured of the idea that tall is best. More →

Hours and pay are not key factors for work-life balance finds survey

Hours or pay not crucial to work-life balance

The key to a better work-life balance is not simply to work shorter hours or earn more money and working shorter hours does not necessarily make people happier. According to a new survey by recruiter Randstad those in the South East and Yorkshire & The Humber are most happy with their work-life balance, with 64 per cent saying they are content, despite those in the South East having one of the longest average working weeks in the UK. The survey also found that those working in property and construction (88%) were amongst the happiest with their work-life balance, coming third after the utilities and insurance sectors. Those least happy with their work-life balance were the East of England (51 per cent) and South West (55 per cent) – yet those in the South West have a shorter average working week than most of the UK. More →

Office Insight announces partnership with Worktech 13

British MuseumThe publishers of Office Insight are pleased to announce a partnership with Worktech 13, which will be held at the British Museum in London on the 19th and 20th November.  This will be the tenth annual Worktech conference staged by organisers Unwired. The conference looks at the implications of the convergence between the worlds of technology, corporate real estate, work and the workplace making it an ideal partner for Office Insight which is the UK’s most widely read specialist publication on those topics. Over the next few months Worktech and Office Insight will be publishing content from some of the world’s foremost thinkers on office design and management including Frank Duffy, Philip Ross, Dave Coplin and Greg Lindsay. Office Insight readers will also be able to take advantage of a 20 percent discount on delegate tickets. More →

Land Securities £260m development confirms City office confidence

Land Securities announcement today of a £260 million development of 1 & 2 New Ludgate, EC4, a speculative mixed-use development in the City of London confirms a growing confidence in the City office market. The 379,000 sq ft scheme occupies an island site near St Paul’s Cathedral and comprises two distinct buildings united by a new public piazza, which together aim to offer 346,000 sq ft of office accommodation set around open and green spaces. Colette O’Shea, Head of Development, London said: “Our decision to commence the speculative development of 1 & 2 New Ludgate reflects our confidence both in the City office market, where we believe supply of new space will be constrained in 2015, and in the quality of the attractive and highly efficient office space we are creating.” More →

Employers struggling to recruit the right talent finds survey

Employers struggling to recruit the right talent

Employers are having to work harder than ever to find the right talent to fill vacancies, with the proportion of employers reporting an increase in competition for well-qualified talent increasing threefold from 20 per cent in 2009 to 62 per cent in 2013. The annual CIPD/Hays Resourcing and Talent Planning Survey 2013, which examines resourcing and talent planning strategies across private, public and voluntary sector organisations, reveals that six in ten organisations had experienced difficulties filling vacancies in the past year, and although more than half of organisations report that they make use of social media in resourcing, just two fifths have a dedicated strategy. More →

The three Rs of the RIBA Awards winners – risk, reticence, recession

Risk, reticence and recession are the 3 Rs  that leap out from the education dominated RIBA awards winners. The premise being that only a really bold architect would design something daring at a time of economic constraint. However, given what vanity has been displayed in recent years one would have supposed that boldness would not have been in short supply. It is the reality that falls some way short. A largely egg- and shoe-box inspired collection with windows best described as minimalist, the common theme is seemingly one of modesty. Even the big public projects seem derivative and cautious. Images of the visitor centre for the Giants Causeway (above) in Ireland suggest an attractive scheme but bring to mind Stonehenge, another early attempt at brutalist monolithic human construction with a spiritual dimension. Unless I’m missing something.

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Only one commercial office building in RIBA National and EU Awards

Quadrant 3 on Regent Street in London

Just one commercial office building – Quadrant 3 on Regent Street in London [pictured] by Dixon Jones with Donald Insall Associates – has received a prize in the 2013 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) National Awards. Many of the winners for the most rigorously-judged awards for architectural excellence are publicly, charity or foundation funded, with fewer medium-scale projects amongst the winners, both public and commercial. The shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the best building of the year will be drawn from the 52 RIBA National and EU Award winners (43 buildings in the UK and nine buildings elsewhere in the EU).

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