November 20, 2023
Manchester is now a major draw for office design firms
Way before the lockdown rewired the whole events scene in cities around the world, I was given a task by an old, now departed, friend. He wanted to explore the possibility of creating something like Clerkenwell Design Week in Manchester. The obvious problem was that, for some of its historic parallels, Manchester isn’t Clerkenwell and it certainly isn’t London. What it particularly lacked for this type of event was a hothouse of office design showrooms sharing space with a youthful community of architects and designers. The ecosystem for such an event didn’t really exist in the same way. (more…)






Office workers now spend more time in the office, with the average creeping up to three and a half days per week compared to 
And No One Shouted Stop! seems to me to be an apt phrase to capture these post- pandemic times as we grapple with work and workplace dilemmas. It comes from the little-known but widely acclaimed 


















November 24, 2023
The final word on… workplace trends
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design