February 8, 2025

HLW announces three new managing partners as part of new leadership team

Design and architecture practice HLW has announced a new Global Leadership Team as the firm enters its 140th year. Established in 1885, HLW has been led by partnership since 1900, when founder Cyrus Eidlitz joined with Andrew McKenzie to pioneer the design of a new building typology. From that foundation, the firm has grown into a dynamic global architecture practice headquartered in New York with a flagship international office in London, and steward of the built environment. The new Global Leadership team will advance HLW’s legacy of innovation through collaboration in a historic expansion of its governance, codifying the commitment to integrated leadership at an international scale. (more…)

January 31, 2025

We need to address the UK’s creative skills shortage

by Chris Meredith • Comment, Workplace

The UK’s creative industries, from film and television to the dynamic video game sector, are cultural flagships and economic cornerstones. Valued at £125 billion annually, the creative industries are named one of the UK government’s eight growth-driving sectors in its Industrial Strategy. Yet, a significant obstacle looms over their continued success: a persistent and growing skills shortage. This gap threatens to stifle innovation and global competitiveness, particularly in the booming video game industry. (more…)

January 30, 2025

CIFF Guangzhou creates a new ecosystem of sustainable office and commercial space

by Freddie Steele • Company news

After the remarkable success of the March 2024 edition, CIFF Guangzhou is preparing to unveil an even more innovative chapter in March 2025, welcoming global furniture industry leaders to the Canton Fair Complex, with the Office and Commercial Space sector poised to redefine workplace environments for the future. The timing of the 55th CIFF Guangzhou 2025 aligns perfectly with the global office furniture market’s exceptional growth, projected to reach $66.1 billion in 2024 and expand to $99.3 billion by 2029, driven by rapid economic growth, urbanization, and increasing renovation projects worldwide. (more…)

January 29, 2025

Furniture Makers to hold next sustainability event focussed on material choices

by Freddie Steele • Environment, Furniture, News

The Furniture Makers’ Company, the City of London livery company and charity for the furnishing industry, is hosting its next sustainability event focussed on examining some of the established and widely used materials in the furniture and furnishings sector. The seminar, which is sponsored by the Furniture Industry Sustainability Programme (FISP), Ocee & Four Design, Panaz and Satra Technology, will be held on Tuesday 4 March at Furniture Makers’ Hall, London. Organised by The Furniture Makers’ Company’s Climate Change and Sustainability Committee, the event will include presentations on foam, fabrics, textiles, leather and wood. In addition, new materials will be discussed and the necessary investigations in relation to recycled content, future recyclability and other implications. (more…)

January 7, 2025

Here’s how to support neurodivergent employees at work

by Stephanie Clarke • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace

Businesses have much to gain from neurodivergent employees. According to a recent Deloitte report “teams with neurodivergent professionals in some roles can be 30 percent more productive than those without them”. Benefits of neurodivergent individuals to the workplace – according to the CIPD, range from “problem-solving, to creative insights and visual spatial thinking.” (more…)

December 16, 2024

Workplace monitoring is a fact of working life in the US. People say ‘whatever’

by Marvin Gort • News, Workplace

Workplace monitoring remains a significant aspect of many American employees’ daily lives, with more than half (54 percent) of non-self-employed workers reporting that their employers track their start and end times, according to Pew Research Center’s recent study into people’s perceptions of their jobs. The report highlights a variety of ways employers monitor their staff and explores workers’ perceptions of these practices. (more…)

November 25, 2024

Poor job quality leaves people exhausted and at risk of ill health

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

A new report from the Institute for Employment Studies warns that poor job quality is significantly affecting worker health, with 1.7 million people in Great Britain reporting work-related ill health in the last year. The research reveals that half of all workers report having to work more hours than contracted or expected – the highest rate in Europe. Rising work intensity and job strain have left around half of the UK workforce regularly exhausted. The impact of ill-health on spiralling economic inactivity is a focus of an anticipated government White Paper looking to tackle the ‘greatest employment challenge for a generation’ and support more people into good work. (more…)

November 21, 2024

Slow progress on sustainable buildings, RICS report claims

by Marvin Gort • News

The latest sustainability report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) highlights the continued challenge of embedding sustainable practices within the built environment, despite some signs of progress. While demand for sustainable buildings and investment remains steady, particularly in regions such as Europe, significant gaps persist in terms of skills, knowledge, and financial incentives. (more…)

November 7, 2024

University staff love to connect on campus, but also value time working from home

by Marvin Gort • Flexible working, News, Workplace

A new report from Hassell, the 2024 Education Futures Survey, explores how hybrid working is reshaping the needs and expectations of Australian university staff. Based on responses from 300 university employees and a benchmark group of 500 office workers, the survey reveals distinct trends in campus work culture and the growing preference for in-person interactions among academic staff, coupled with a desire to continue working from home when needed. (more…)

October 29, 2024

Why does colour psychology make so much difference to us?

by Abi Eskdale • Features, Wellbeing, Workplace design

In 2013, two Australian academics set out to discover the answer to a deceptively simple question. Why is there such a thing as colour psychology, but not shape, line or texture psychology? The answers they come up with are complex, arcane and wide-ranging but they manage to sum them up to some extent in the conclusion to the paper they published. “No other visual attribute shares such diverse representations”, they wrote. “Study into shape, line, and texture hardly competes. For this reason, there are no proportion-shape-line-texture prediction agencies, and chromotherapy is not challenged by proportion-shape-line-texture therapies. Colour remains special and, given its rich and complex heritage, is likely to remain so.” (more…)

October 15, 2024

Design Guild Mark Awards calls for 2025 entries

by Freddie Steele • News, Workplace design

The Design Guild Mark has opened entries for the 2025 edition, inviting designers and companies to submit entries for three categories: furniture, lighting and interior elements. Entry is open to British designers working in the UK or abroad, and designers with UK based design practices. The Design Guild Mark is a non-profit award programme that was established in 2008 by The Furniture Makers’ Company to raise the profile of British industrial design and to recognise excellence in this discipline. (more…)

October 1, 2024

Magenta Associates becomes employee owned

by Freddie Steele • Company news

Our friends at comms specialist Magenta Associates have announced that the business is now owned by its employees. The company has set up an Employee Ownership Trust which owns the majority of the business. The trust will be led by five trustees to ensure the management team is running the business in the best interests of the employees. Magenta was set up in 2011 by Cathy Hayward, the former editor of FM World (now Facilitate) and FMJ magazine who spotted a gap in the market for a PR agency specialising specifically in facilities management. (more…)