April 25, 2024

Event explores how the government is setting new office standards for civil servants

by Government Property Agency • Company news, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

At a recent event, the Government Property Agency brought together Civil Service leaders to exchange ideas, debate trends and inform how the GPA delivers its property services. The GPA is leading one of the country’s biggest and most ambitious workplace renewal programmes for its clients – delivering a smaller, better connected, better quality, and greener property estate to support the work of Civil Service teams and bring them closer to the communities they serve. More →

April 23, 2024

Report sets out nine ways cities can reduce carbon emissions

by Jayne Smith • Cities, Environment, News

A report published by the World Economic Forum’s Centre for Urban Transformation sets out what its authors claim are best practices developed by pioneer cities that are reducing carbon emissions from urban development projects. As cities grow in population and importance, urban construction will continue to gather pace. It is estimated that the global floor area is expected to double by 2060, the equivalent of building out New York City every month for the next 40 years. The report, Reducing Embodied Carbon in Cities: Nine Solutions for Greener Buildings and Communities, highlights nine innovative solutions for all phases of construction and demolition. More →

April 17, 2024

CIFF Guangzhou 2024 proves a record-breaker and a major boost to international furniture trade

by Freddie Steele • Company news

An extraordinary edition of CIFF Guangzhou has just concluded, recording the highest number of exhibitors and visitors ever. This success rewarded the strategy of CIFF, an ever-evolving exhibition event with a key role in the development of the global furniture industry, promoting design and innovation, boosting consumption, and fostering international furniture trade. A total area measuring 850,000 square metres; 4,700 exhibitors, 11.8% more than the all-time pre-pandemic peak in 2019; 363,449 trade visitors, 22.06% more than in 2019, including 51,205 international visitors from 178 countries, an increase of as much as +43.11% compared to 2019. More →

April 11, 2024

A definitive new book on the madness of hybrid working goes one step beyond

by Paul Carder • Comment, Flexible working

In any crisis, there are people who spot an opportunity. One such opportunity, in early 2020, was to seize the term “hybrid” and apply it to the world of work and place. And for the past four years, we have seen the emergence of polarised commentators, arguing over two extremes; work from home, and ‘back to the office’ and the nominally new construct ‘hybrid working’. Mostly, entirely missing the spectrum of work and workstyles which can co-exist. More →

April 10, 2024

MIPIM has changed, and mostly for the better

by Anna King • Environment, Features, Property

With an estimated 27,000 delegates from 90 countries, MIPIM is still a force to be reckoned with when it comes to opportunities to network and learn as delegates, with organisations using the week to deliver news, insights and thinking. The theme for MIPIM this year was The Global Urban Community; and it really did feel more international than previous years, the majority of attendees are still from France, Germany and the UK, but there were significant delegations from the United States, Canada, Oman, Egypt and Hong Kong, more from Asia generally and a show stopper from Saudi Arabia, more of which later. More →

March 25, 2024

UK Space Agency announces new headquarters and regional offices

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

The UK Space Agency is opening new headquarters in Harwell, Oxfordshire and regional offices in Scotland, Wales and the Midlands as it works to support the space sector across the UK. According to the government, the expansion will enable the Agency to collaborate more closely with the UK’s space sector, while promoting regional skills and job opportunities to deliver ‘increasingly ambitious missions and capabilities’. As set out in the Space Industrial Plan, the government says it is committed to continuing its support for space clusters across the UK and ‘providing the tools needed to drive collaboration between them and catalyse further investment’. More →

March 21, 2024

Fitwel Announces 2024 Best in Building Health Awards

by Freddie Steele • Environment, News, Wellbeing

Fitwel, the building health certification system, has announced the winners of the 2024 Best in Building Health Awards. The awards are designed to honour the most innovative real estate companies and individuals ‘setting the standard for health and wellbeing in the built environment across the globe, leveraging the trusted Fitwel Standard to enhance quality of life and drive value through design and operational excellence’. This year’s winners include projects from Canada, Spain, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Thailand, and the United States. More →

March 20, 2024

Reviving flexible workspaces – a guide to saving failing operations

by Calum Russell • Comment, Property

The landscape of flexible working has witnessed unprecedented growth, spurred by the evolving needs of businesses in the aftermath of the pandemic. Despite the economic turbulence of 2023, the flexible office market has remained strong in the UK, achieving a record overall occupancy of 83 percent in the same year. As the demand for adaptable and collaborative working environments continues to rise, landlords and operators of flexible workspaces need to ensure that what they offer is meeting customer demands. Given the number of notable operator closures, many landlords are beginning to find themselves at the forefront of decisions about managing and revitalising failing operations. More →

March 14, 2024

When the chairs took over the world and what it all meant

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, Workplace, Workplace design

Of all the things we buy, with the exception of our clothes, furniture is the most intimate, the one item we spend most time in contact with. According to JG Ballard who dedicated himself to understanding our relationship with the world around us, ‘Furniture constitutes an external constellation of our skin areas and body postures’. Whether he would have recognised it as such, Ballard was a pioneer of the principle we now refer to as psychogeography, defined by one of its founders, Guy Debord, as ‘the study of the precise effects of setting, consciously managed or not, acting directly on the mood and behaviour of the individual’. More →

March 14, 2024

Most firms set to invest in AI but half admit they don’t know why or how

by Neil Franklin • AI, Business, News, Technology

A new poll from Orgvue, an organisational design and planning software platform, suggests that businesses continue to ramp up investment in artificial intelligence despite being unclear on its business impact or how to implement it. Four in five (82 percent) of organisations have already invested, with another 33 percent saying they will increase this by more than 50 percent in the coming year. Based on a survey of 1,000 C-suite and senior decision makers at medium and large organisations, the report, Human-first, machine enhanced: the role of AI in workforce transformation, highlights contradictions in the business community concerning technology investment and AI’s impact on the workforce. More →

March 9, 2024

Only a quarter of desk-based workers in the UK say they have a healthy relationship with work

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

HP has announced new findings from its Work Relationship Index, a report that explores employees’ relationships with work around the world. The survey of more than 15,600 respondents across 12 countries, reveals that while the world’s relationship with work is strained and employee expectations are rising, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is seen as a key to unlocking better relationships with work. More →

March 7, 2024

The sector responds to the Spring Budget

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

Yesterday’s Spring Budget included a number of announcements that affect the various people, place and technology professions in the UK. These include a cut in National Insurance, pension fund reforms, support for working parents, AI, helping people back in to work and more. You can see the Government’s own summary here. The various industry sectors have been quick to respond to the announcements. You can see what some people have had to say below, in no particular order. More →