October 22, 2014
Two new office developments worth £77m for construction firm
Construction group Galliford Try plc, has been appointed to two new major office contracts worth a combined £77 million. Its been selected as preferred bidder by Northamptonshire County Council to build its new headquarters in Northampton in a £38 million project. The new 17,600 sqm four-storey building is intended to consolidate the council’s existing offices in the town, and regenerate an area on the south side of the town centre. In addition to the office space, a café will be created together with extensive hard landscaping around the site. Galliford Try is also to deliver a new office building at Sutton in Surrey for offshore engineering company Subsea 7. The £39 million project creates a new 150,000 sqft Category A office space and associated facilities on the site of the former Brighton Road car park. Galliford Try Executive Chairman Greg Fitzgerald commented: “We have a strong reputation in the office sector and we look forward to providing these two clients with the first class facilities they require.”
October 6, 2014
We’ve long had ‘overwhelming evidence’ for the link between office design and productivity
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design
Perhaps the most widely reported news from the world of workplace over the last couple of weeks has been the analysis from the World Green Building Council that links office design with productivity and wellness. And the two words from the report that have featured most commonly in the associated stories’ headlines have been ‘overwhelming evidence’. While this has been repeated as if it’s some kind of revelation, the truth is that we have had compelling and overwhelming evidence for many years, and barely a year goes past without some study or other making the same point in no uncertain terms. Each report merely serves to raise a more interesting question; given the sheer body of work linking the workplace with productivity (and happiness and motivation and so on), why does the argument still need to be made?
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