October 25, 2019

How office design trends in different countries feed off each other

by Steve Elliott • Comment, Workplace design

The term Global Village has passed into general use to describe many of the phenomena we associate with the modern globalised world. But it actually dates back to 1962 when coined by Marshall McLuhan to describe an emerging, electronically contracted world in which cultures converge alongside political, business and legislative frameworks. These forces have been instrumental in bringing nations and organisations closer together and yet each nation continues to be shaped by little differences and residual cultures and conditions. More →

October 21, 2019

RICS launched new Social Impact Awards

by Neil Franklin • Architecture, Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has today launched a new awards programme. Entries are being sought for the RICS Social Impact Awards, which set out to ‘recognise the positive and transformational contribution that the built environment has on people’s lives across the UK’. According to RICS, the awards will ‘assess the human, social and environmental impact, and the innovation and collaboration, that has gone into development and infrastructure projects in the Commercial, Education, Healthcare, Heritage, Infrastructure, Land & Rural, Leisure, Residential and Student Accommodation sectors’. More →

October 14, 2019

Full fibre broadband could boost UK economy by billions

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Technology

The deployment of full-fibre broadband could boost the UK economy by around £59 billion, according to a new report from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), commissioned by Openreach. The Full fibre broadband: A platform for growth report claims that connecting the UK to fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband could increase productivity, reduce commuting, enable smarter ways of working and improve public services. More →

October 2, 2019

Best workplaces in UK honoured at BCO Awards

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, News, Property, Workplace design

London’s 2 Television Centre was celebrated as ‘Best of the Best’ at the British Council for Offices’ (BCO) National Awards in the capital last night, also taking home the ‘Commercial Workplace’ award. The office was joined by six other award winners recognised as leading examples of excellence in office space. More →

September 30, 2019

Flexible workspace makes up a third of London property deals

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

Over the past year, flexible workspace made up over a third of of commercial property transactions in London despite only making up around 6 percent of the total office supply in the UK capital, according to a new report by The Instant Group. More →

September 23, 2019

Office design alone cannot motivate us or make us happy at work

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Knowledge, Workplace, Workplace design

There’s a good reason why we find it hard to establish the causal links between our working lives, office design and our personal happiness. It’s because it’s all very complicated. So complicated in fact that you can sidetrack any discussion on the subject by asking elementary questions such as: ‘what do you mean by happy?’ or ‘should it be the role of work to make us happy?’ More →

September 23, 2019

Growing number of organisations pledge to take action on climate change

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News, Property

As world leaders meet in New York for today’s UN Climate Action Summit, a group of 59 large multinationals including Swiss Re, Ikea, and L’Oréal have signed up to the UN Global Compact to pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The compact now has 87 corporations as signatories, including Astra Zeneca and Unilever who signed up earlier this year, with a combined market value of $2.3 trillion. As is the case with countries, there is still a way to go for more companies to take decisive action on climate change, however. More →

September 17, 2019

The four day week problem, WeWork delays IPO, harbingers of doom and some other stuff

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Flexible working, Property, Technology, Workplace design

It’s interesting to watch what happens when politicians – even more so than normal people – are faced with evidence they don’t like. And it’s especially interesting when they asked for the evidence in the first place. You can pick your own examples but it was interesting to note Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s immediate and decidedly lukewarm response to his own report into the wisdom of introducing a 4 day week, which concluded that the idea is ‘not realistic or even desirable’. More →

September 13, 2019

Final line up for Workplace Week announced

by Jo Sutherland • Company news, Events

Marking its ninth consecutive year, Workplace Week London 2019 – brainchild of Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) – will take place the week commencing 11 November 2019. 30 organisations, a third of which are debutants, have confirmed their support for the philanthropic week, which has so far raised over £100,000 for BBC Children in Need. More →

September 5, 2019

Workplace experience to be main theme of CoreNet Global

by Neil Franklin • Company news, Events, Property, Technology, Workplace design

Optimising the human workplace experience to achieve greater productivity and creativity will be explored in depth at the CoreNet Global Summit in Amsterdam this September. Over a dozen diverse sessions will examine multidisciplinary approaches to achieving gains in health, productivity and creativity alongside both academic and commercial research showing measurable benefits. More →

August 29, 2019

Coworking continues to reshape property markets worldwide

by Neil Franklin • Coworking, News, Property

Against a global backdrop of diminishing business confidence and a weaker outlook for economic growth, a robust labour market in the world’s largest economies continues to underpin demand for office space with high employment levels prevalent across a number of major markets. Demand continues to be driven by the knowledge economy, with the coworking boom continuing to broaden its reach across major markets, forcing traditional landlords to adapt their offering in order to best accommodate existing and potential occupiers. More →

August 8, 2019

London occupiers mixing conventional and flexible offices

by Neil Franklin • Coworking, News, Property

Although London retains its status as the European capital of flexible offices and coworking, a new report from Colliers International claims that the capital is also enjoying above average demand for conventional office space, coupled with reduced footprints overall, as corporate occupiers seek to expand their businesses but without taking on property at the same rate. More →