June 20, 2022

Birmingham BT HQ shows road ahead for its offices and the city

by Mike Hills • Cities, Features, Property, Workplace design

In January of 2020, shortly before that thing happened and before we knew much about the UK Government’s ‘levelling up’ programme, Birmingham was already a city on the rise. It had recently been announced that it was to host the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and was riding the crest of a number of high-profile developments and regeneration projects, not least those that arrived on the back of the controversial high speed rail station. More →

April 28, 2022

British Council for Offices honour London’s best workplaces at annual Regional Awards

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

Six London workplaces have been recognised at the annual British Council for Offices’ (BCO) Regional Awards. The London Awards Lunch returned in-person to the London Hilton on Park Lane, recognising the highest quality developments in London and setting the standard for excellence in the office sector across the UK. The winning workplaces include: 80 Charlotte Street (Commercial Workplace); Plumtree Court, 25 Shoe Lane (Corporate Workplace); Dojo, The Brunel Building, 2 Canalside Walk (Fit Out of Workplace); ASOS HQ, Greater London House, 180 Hampstead Road (Refurbished/Recycled Workplace); Pennybank , 33-35 St John’s Square (Projects up to 1,500m sq. ); 1 Triton, 1 Triton Square, Regent’s Place (Innovation) More →

March 29, 2022

MIPIM revival offers up a pale, stale imitation of life (but there’s hope)

by Freddie Steele • Comment, Property

If a week is a long time in politics, then two years in real estate is practically a lifetime. Time enough for an opportunity for MIPIM, the property world’s annual gathering in Cannes to reset itself post-pandemic. Unlike back in London where British Land had offered up space for Ukrainian care packages at its Paddington Central Campus and Quintain also pledge to make space at its Wembley Park space (as reported by Estates Gazette), unfortunately such correct reading of the room wasn’t the case on the Croisette. More →

March 7, 2022

Working outside ‘traditional hours’ can harm motivation, say researchers

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Working outside traditional hours, and checking in at all hours of the day, night, weekends, and holidays, is not necessarily beneficial for the 21st-century workforce, according to new research from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Cornell University. The researchers address the issue of working ‘out of hours’ in the paper, “Working During Non-Standard Work Time Undermines Intrinsic Motivation,” published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. They set out to examine the motivational consequences of studying and working outside of traditional hours, such as weekends and holidays, among employees and college students. More →

February 23, 2022

We need a growth mindset for buildings to make them adaptable

by Matthias Rebellius • Comment, Environment, Property, Technology

The world is in a race. And it’s a race against time – against rising sea levels, overcrowded cities, and a virus that has shown us a thing or two about being adaptable. Although the current developments around infection rates and the omicron variant are cause for hope that the virus will soon become endemic, the experience of the last two years have emphasized something important: There is an urgent need to transform infrastructure across different dimensions – one of which is the physical space: the changing needs and expectations of people in their buildings, factories, facilities, offices and homes call for adaptability. More →

January 31, 2022

From the archive: How organic design can reflect the way people move around a building

by Paul Goodchild • Comment, Workplace design

The story goes that, after Rem Koolhaas had been appointed to design the McCormick Tribune Campus Center at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2003, the legendary architect noticed how students had created their own pathways between the buildings on the site. The site of the new building included a field on which their footprints had worn down the grass to such an extent that distinct grooves had been carved out that reflected their movements, prompting him to consider the effect of desire lines on organic design.

October 29, 2021

Workplace balance of power shifts in favour of employees

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace design

The workplace power dynamic has shifted in favour of employees, according to a new study released from BCW in partnership with Workplace from Facebook (now Meta of course). The inaugural International Workforce Insights Study (registration) reveals that more than half of all employees say they feel more empowered to influence change in their workplace compared to a year ago, including with their employer’s business strategy (54 percent), company culture (55 percent) and their work experience (59 percent). This feeling of empowerment is most pronounced among Generation Z and Millennials. More →

August 13, 2021

Digital twin and other tech to benefit from landmark $3.5trillion infrastructure package

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Property, Technology

Growth in key tech sectors is set to rocket after a landmark $1 trillion infrastructure package bill passed in the US Senate, part of a comprehensive $3.5 trillion plan within President Biden’s post-COVID Build Back Better initiative and paralleling the UN’s Race To Zero campaign. There had been an upward trend in share prices for companies in several tech sectors already, but Pitchbook research identified nanotechnology and digital twin technology as most likely to gain from the new bill – the largest public investment in America’s infrastructure for decades. More →

June 22, 2021

Winning the war for talent in the post-pandemic world

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives

The Future Forum, a consortium launched by Slack Technologies, Inc., has released a new study that unpacks how 15 months of pandemic work has shifted employee expectations. More →

May 4, 2021

Workspace Show announces details of speakers lineup

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Workplace design

Workspace Design Show, the event bringing together the commercial interiors community with its inaugural event taking place over the 4-5 November this year at London’s Business Design Centre, is building momentum with news of new speakers and partners that have joined the party, as well as details of its discussion on ‘New Product Ideas for Tomorrow’s Workspaces.’ The show’s organisers say they are especially thrilled to announce that its inaugural event will feature key speakers from the world of commercial interiors, from established brands including Gensler, Perkins and Will, BDG, tp bennett, Unispace, Arup, PwC, Landor and Fitch, Aviva, Areen Design, KKS Savills, MF Design Studio, Susan Lake and The Office Group. Workplace Insight and IN Magazine are also partnering with the event. More →

April 20, 2021

Buildings with a digital twin have a lot to tell us

by Peter Loeffler • Features, Technology, Workplace design

The expression “if these walls could talk” is taking on an entirely new meaning with the emerging opportunity to create digital twins for buildings. Across the entire lifecycle of structures such as office buildings, hospitals, airports and hotels, creating a digital twin can significantly reduce costs, improve efficiencies, speed construction delivery, as well as enhance performance and the user experience. More →

April 1, 2021

‘Healthy buildings’ enjoy a surge in demand worldwide

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News, Property, Wellbeing

A new survey of many of the world’s leading real estate investors finds that 92 percent of respondents expect demand for healthy buildings to grow in the next three years. The report claims that this is a compelling signal of the direction the real estate sector is heading. This finding, among others, is captured in a report titled A New Investor Consensus: The Rising Demand for Healthy Buildings (registration) which claims to be a comprehensive health and wellness study of global real estate investment managers and stakeholders representing aggregate AUM of $5.75 trillion and portfolio investments in real estate totalling approximately US$1.03 trillion. More →