Search Results for: environment

Video: is this the world’s most sustainable office building?

by • Architecture, Environment, Facilities management, Workplace design

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What is claimed to be the world’s most sustainable office building has just achieved a platinum LEED certification. The NuOffice building in Munich was supported by the EU funded Direction project which promotes energy efficient and sustainable building design along with the  Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics (IBP). The focus of the building’s design is on energy efficiency and applies radiant heating and cooling technology, switchable glazing and innovative insulating material to reduce the environmental footprint and running costs of the building. The developers claim that local energy costs have increased by 50 percent over the last decade so the new building which is expected to reduce energy consumption by 90 percent can offer a substantial cost saving over conventional designs.

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Designs unveiled for new Google London headquarters in King’s Cross

by • Architecture, News, Property, Workplace design

Detailed plans have been submitted for the design of the new Google London headquarters building in King’s Cross. The 1 million sq. ft scheme designed by architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris does not exceed 11 storeys at any point and will be home to up to 4,500 employees, double the company’s current London workforce and potentially making it the largest Google operation outside of New York.  The scheme is part of a wider development of Kings Cross and will incorporate 750,000 sq. ft. of office space with 50,000 sq. ft. of shops and cafes.  Current employees will relocate from three existing buildings in the capital.  Subject to approval for the detailed design from Camden Council, who have already granted planning permission,  work will begin on the site next year with completion set for 2016-2017.

Google is evidently keen to emphasise its investment in the UK, following weeks of criticism of its tax affairs from the media and politicians. Dan Cobley, Google UK’s managing director, in announcing the details of the development said: ‘Building our new headquarters in King’s Cross is good for Google and good for London.’ Certainly the deal is one of the biggest in recent years in the UK property industry, worth around £650 million and is expected by the developers to create 1,500 construction jobs and 35,000 new employment opportunities over all.

Some of the more interesting aspects of the proposed design are:

  • The primary way for workers to move between floors will be stairs rather than lifts as the firm looks to challenge the sedentary workstyles of staff. No news yet on any wretched slides.
  • The building is designed as a ‘groundscraper’ eschewing London’s recent trend for tall buildings, but is larger than the Shard at 1,083 ft long compared with the Shard’s 1,016 ft height.
  • Over two thirds (71 percent) of the office space are designated for workstations with the remainder set aside for meeting and breakout spaces, cafes and lobbies. Nearly half of the roof of the building will be landscaped.
  • The intention is to achieve a BREEAM outstanding accreditation.
  • The architects claims the design is inspired by the Victorian industrial heritage of the area and will act as a theatre in which the drama of Google’s business will unfold, but with stage settings that can change quickly and easily.

Commenting on the development, Simon Allford, of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, said: ‘This building is underpinned by cutting edge design intelligence and technologies to provide a sophisticated twenty first century working environment for Google’s staff. The architectural approach, which has taken inspiration from King’s Cross and St Pancras International railway stations, complements the local area’s strong industrial heritage and will be a building London can be proud of.’

Ergonomics of dishonesty. How desk size influences behaviour

by • Facilities management, Furniture, News, Workplace design

The influence the design and layout of the workplace can have on productivity is widely acknowledged. Now, according to a new scientific study expansive physical settings like having a big desk to stretch out at work can cause individuals to feel more powerful, and in turn these feelings of power can elicit more dishonest behaviour such as stealing, cheating, and traffic violations. This might sound far-fetched but The Ergonomics of Dishonesty was written by a group of researchers at leading business schools, including Harvard, Columbia and Berkeley and is soon to be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science. Co-author Andy Yap, explained: “Our research shows that office managers should pay attention to the ergonomics of their workspaces. The results suggest that these physical spaces have tangible and real-world impact on our behaviours.” (more…)

Govt incentives needed to promote energy efficiency for non-residential buildings

by • Environment, Facilities management, News, Public Sector

Energy efficiency for built environment needs incentives to work Govt warned

The Government should conduct a comprehensive assessment of non-residential low-carbon policies to ensure they work effectively said the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) in its latest annual progress report to Parliament today. Progress in implementing some of the measures required to meet carbon budgets was limited in 2012, it warned, while the simplification of the CRC energy efficiency scheme beyond the CCC’s original recommendations has further eroded the incentives to improve energy efficiency it set out to provide. John Alker, Director of Policy and Communications at the UK Green Building Council, said: “Just one day before the release of official statistics on the Green Deal, the CCC’s report is a timely reminder that the Coalition’s flagship energy efficiency policy needs to be further incentivised to encourage take-up.”

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“Time-bomb” of British workers unhealthy and old before their time

by • Knowledge, News, Workplace

"Time-bomb" of British workers unhealthy and old before their time

Bad lifestyle choices are shaving over four years off British employee’s lives, leaving them unhealthy and old before their time and creating a “time-bomb” for UK employers. According to the wellness survey of 10,000 employees in the UK, 86 per cent of British workers have an average Vitality (health) Age of 4.1 years older than their real age due to unhealthy lifestyles. Vitality Age gives an estimate of years of life lost or gained by taking into consideration the presence or absence of certain risk factors. Nearly a third (31.2 per cent) of employees have three or more risk factors, putting them at serious risk of ill health, and the biggest contributing factors for a higher Vitality Age are lack of physical activity and being overweight.

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US corporate occupiers changing the size and type of office space they demand

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, Knowledge, Property

America’s corporate occupiers are not only reducing the amount of office space they use, they are changing their requirements too according to the latest Office Occupier View report from CBRE. Not only did overall demand for commercial space fall during the first quarter of 2013 compared to the last of 2012, the average amount of space allocated to each worker is falling below 225 sq.ft. (21 sq.m.) , and occupiers are demanding more open, ‘creative’ working environments in Class A buildings with large floor plates. Occupiers are also looking for space that is ideally located  in central business districts (CBDs) with easy access to transport links and amenities and offers them flexible terms.

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Approval for first commercial building to achieve top eco-build standards

by • Architecture, Environment, News, Property

 Approval granted to first commercial building to achieve top eco-build standards

A major new £8m low carbon building, which is the first commercial building to be designed to achieve both Passivhaus and BREEAM Outstanding certifications has been granted planning permission. The Enterprise Centre at the University of East Anglia (UEA), designed by UK-GBC members Architype and BDP, as well as Churchman Landscape Architects, also aims to set radical new sustainability standards in terms of embodied energy and use of materials from renewable sources. Ben Humphries, Associate Director from Architype and lead designer for the project, described the building as an “exciting and innovative piece of architecture.” (more…)

The three Rs of the RIBA Awards winners – risk, reticence, recession

by • News

Risk, reticence and recession are the 3 Rs  that leap out from the education dominated RIBA awards winners. The premise being that only a really bold architect would design something daring at a time of economic constraint. However, given what vanity has been displayed in recent years one would have supposed that boldness would not have been in short supply. It is the reality that falls some way short. A largely egg- and shoe-box inspired collection with windows best described as minimalist, the common theme is seemingly one of modesty. Even the big public projects seem derivative and cautious. Images of the visitor centre for the Giants Causeway (above) in Ireland suggest an attractive scheme but bring to mind Stonehenge, another early attempt at brutalist monolithic human construction with a spiritual dimension. Unless I’m missing something.

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Consultation opens on facilities management to ‘enhance organisational performance’

by • Facilities management, Knowledge, News, Property

Consultation opens on 'managing facilities to enhance organisational performance’

Facilities and property managers worldwide are being asked to help shape a ‘Strategic Facilities Management Guidance Note’. Once established, the note – spearheaded by a RICS-led working group – aims to help drive professionalism and enable benchmarking across the sector by creating greater consistency in the delivery of FM services. The guidance forms a key part of RICS’ wider campaign to improve understanding and recognition from businesses for the performance efficiencies that strategic FM can deliver. The call for global feedback follows RICS’ initial UK consultation last year which has resulted in the publication of the draft guidance, ‘Managing facilities to enhance organisational performance’.

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Neocon 2013 announces comprehensive list of awards winners

by • Furniture, News, Products, Workplace design

It might sound like a Republican convention but in fact Neocon is the annual workplace exhibition at the giant Merchandise Mart in the centre of Chicago. And when we say ‘workplace’, we mean largely ‘office furniture’.  It attracts around 700 exhibitors and 40,000  of visitors from all over the world and so can help to disseminate ideas that spring up in the US to influence design on a global scale.  Many of the themes apparent at this year’s show will be familiar around the world. As well as the fact that everybody is talking about the environmental credentials of the products, the themes are direct reflections of the concerns and priorities of office occupiers and specifiers. By custom, the first day of the show is when they dish out the awards.

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Daylight exposure has ‘remarkable’ effect on office workers’ health

by • Architecture, Facilities management, Lighting, News, Workplace, Workplace design

The architectural design of office environments should take into consideration how natural daylight exposure contributes to employee wellness say the authors of a new study which observes a strong relationship between workplace daylight exposure and office workers’ health. Compared to workers in offices without windows, those with windows in the workplace received 173 per cent more white light exposure during work hours and slept an average of 46 minutes more per night. Workers without windows reported poorer scores than their counterparts on quality of life measures related to physical problems and vitality, as well as poorer outcomes on measures of overall sleep quality, sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances and daytime dysfunction. (more…)

NeoCon and ThinkFM offer two different views of the facilities management elephant

by • Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, Workplace design

This week sees two events taking place on opposite sides of the pond that should hold a mirror up to the way we currently design and manage workplaces. In Chicago, it’s time for NeoCon, the annual office furniture behemoth held in the vast Merchandise Mart and attracting some 40,000 visitors, while in London it’s the distinctly  low-key Think FM conference from the BIFM held at the Royal College of Physicians – for today only, as they say. While these are two very different events in terms of scale, content and format and both are nakedly commercial, only one strikes me as particularly meaningful. And even that is only about the meaning of one part of the facilities management elephant.

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