April 6, 2021
UK civil service signs up to hybrid working deal
The UK civil service is set to pioneer a widespread hybrid working strategy with the announcement of a new deal with serviced office provider IWG. The details of the deal, reported first in The Telegraph newspaper (paywall), will include the creation of a nationwide network of ten coworking spaces for the use of civil servants when they are not in London. The report suggests that up to 430,000 employees could now have a better chance of adopting a hybrid working culture. More →
Employees could save over £2,200 a year and ‘get back’ 98 mins a day if companies adopted a ‘Work Near Home’ model for offices in the future, claims research from workspace company, 
CBRE Group has announced the acquisition of a 35 percent interest in Industrious, a provider of flexible office space, which will also see CBRE’s existing flexible workplace firm Hana absorbed into Industrious. 
Workspace Show is an exciting addition to the global design events calendar, launching on 21 January this year, with the inaugural edition taking place from 4-5 November 2021 at London’s Business Design Centre, at the heart of the UK’s commercial interiors community. With a theme of ‘re-designing tomorrow’s commercial interiors together’ the show aims to unite architects, designers, developers, contractors, facilities managers, procurement managers and more in one place to explore and share the latest industry thinking from product launches to a comprehensive talks program to networking opportunities aplenty. 
Whatever you might hear, t
In the face of the revolutionary and long-lasting changes to workplaces across the world resulting from the pandemic, some commentators have suggested that the wide-spread necessity of adopting remote working practices may have made the office obsolete. However, such a dramatic upheaval to the very foundation of the workplace and working dynamic won’t come without a cost, and new data suggests that perhaps the office isn’t the dinosaur many assumed, but still a central pillar to effective businesses as part of a hybrid working strategy. 
Most of the analysis about the effects of the 2020 pandemic on people’s working lives has tended to involve grand statements about new normals and the death of this or that, as if everybody wants the same things, has the same personal circumstances, works in the same ways, the same places and same sectors. 
Workplace design and fit out company Area has become a founding member of 
January 13, 2021
Office design will respond to the events of the past year as it always has – by getting better
by Oliver Ronald • Comment, Workplace design