Search Results for: future of work

September 22, 2014

Much anticipated BCO Specification Guide update for 2014 launched

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Facilities management, Knowledge, Property, Workplace design

The British Council for Offices (BCO) has launched the much awaited new edition of its Specification Guide. Last updated in 2009, the 2014 issue aims to cement the publication’s position as the ‘definitive guide to office development in the UK’. As well as its traditional subjects of occupier density and building infrastructure and services, the latest edition covers topics such as building information modelling (BIM) rights to light, updates to BREEAM and amended planning law and building regulations as well as topical issues such as the inexorable rise of the ‘coffee shop workplace’ and the provision of cycle parks. Richard Kauntze, chief executive, claims the revised BCO Specification Guide represents a greater focus on the needs of end users.

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September 19, 2014

Universal application of open plan has led to global privacy crisis, claims report

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace design

A major new report from office furniture maker Steelcase claims that the universal provision of open plan offices means that organisations are facing an unprecedented privacy crisis with their employees. The claim is based on international research carried out by market researchers IPSOS and the Workspace Futures Team of Steelcase which found that a remarkable 85 percent of people are dissatisfied with their working environment and cannot concentrate. Nearly a third (31 percent) now routinely leave the office to get work done in private. The authors of the report claim that this does not mean a reversal of the decades long shift away from cellular offices but rather a move to create offices that offer a range of work settings to give people a choice of where and how to work. More than 10,000 workers across 14 countries were questioned about their office environments and working patterns.

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September 18, 2014

Global launch of healthy buildings report announced for World Green Building Week

by Sara Bean • Environment, Events, Facilities management, News

World Green Building Week 2014 takes place next week (22 – 27 September) with the theme for this year of ‘Get up, Green up’. Created in 2009 to promote a more connected, more interactive, and more public conversation around the role buildings play in creating a sustainable future, this year’s WGBW will feature a range of events held around the world; including Australia, US, Hungary and the United Arab Emirates. On Monday 22 September, as part of WGBW, UK-GBC is hosting a webinar looking at the Ökobau.dat, the German National LCA database for construction, and on Wednesday 24 the global launch event of the WorldGBC ‘Health, wellbeing and productivity in offices: the next chapter for green building’ report, which looks at health, wellbeing and productivity in offices, following an extensive project involving over 50 industry experts from around the world. (more…)

September 15, 2014

Key to successful BIM implementation is collaboration, says RICS

by Sara Bean • Architecture, Facilities management, News, Property, Public Sector

The need for collaboration between all the professions working within the built environment was the overriding theme of a free seminar on BIM, hosted by RICS last week, reports RICS’ Schemes and Accreditation Manager Jon Klahn. The event featured speakers from quantity surveying, engineering and architecture, and was designed to help delegates learn more about BIM and RICS’ role in establishing BIM industry standards. Addressing the 80 plus attendees, Dr Anne Kemp FRICS, Director of BIM Strategy and Development at Atkins and Chair of ICE’s BIM Action Group said the various professions can no longer be driven by self-interest. BIM in itself is not the solution. But the change required to make BIM successful will ultimately allow for better construction, better buildings and a better environment. Successful BIM implementation requires a partnership of people, process and technology and for project teams to understand and appreciate each other’s roles as professionals. (more…)

September 10, 2014

The latest issue of Insight is now available to view online

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Newsletter, Property, Workplace design

In the latest edition of the Workplace Insight newsletter available to view online; Colin Watson argues the urban environment is an increasingly important part of the ‘virtual’ workplace; Nigel Sikora describes how we’re learning to strike a better balance between distraction and privacy, between noise and quiet; and Justin Miller bemoans a lack of balance in the way the media wants to expose ‘waste’ in public sector purchasing. In news, why London offers the best returns on office refurbishment of any city in the world; the publication of two reports from the UK’s National Audit Office alleging poor management and a low priority given to the country’s public sector procurement function and we report on a discussion document by the BIM2050 Group on the digital future of the built environment. We also include a link to the new issue of Work&Place, the journal we publish in partnership with Occupiers Journal.

July 28, 2014

A vision of office design that is the exact opposite of all it claims to be

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Comment, Workplace design

The currently voguish idea that ‘sitting kills’ finds an interesting interpretation in this conceptual office design by Dutch architects RAAAF and the artist Barbra Visser. Designed with the good intentions of encouraging movement, the hellish outcome has the aesthetics of a stealth bomber crossed with an underpass in Peterborough reimagined by MC Escher, the functionality and appeal of a Snowdonian potholing weekend and is populated by 21^st Century hipsters and band members of Kraftwerk. This is the Outstanding Landscape of Affordances, commissioned by the Netherlands’ Chief Government Architect and set to become a real installation in Amsterdam next year. To be fair, the blurb does describe the idea as ‘a first step towards a future in which standing at work is the new norm’, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore its catastrophic shortcomings, even as a talking point.

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July 22, 2014

Corporate social reponsibility remains a vital part of the business armoury

by Mark Sait • Comment, Environment, Facilities management, Insight promotion

There is now an unstoppable energy for radical change in the way that companies of all sizes conduct their Corporate Social Responsibility duties. There are compelling economic and social reasons for companies to construct new ways of thinking and practice around CSR that go way beyond just doing something worthy or nice, from building effective partnerships to attracting top employees. Some companies prefer terms like ‘corporate responsibility’, ‘corporate conscience’, ‘corporate citizenship’, ‘social performance’, ‘sustainability’ or even ‘future-proofing’ over CSR. But the core CSR principles are that a business voluntarily commits to embracing responsibility for its actions and to impacting positively on the environment, on society and on consumers, employees and other stakeholders. (more…)

July 22, 2014

BIFM survey reveals lukewarm approach to sustainable facilities management

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, Facilities management, News

Sustainable facilities management A new report from the British Institute of Facilities Management reveals the lukewarm approach many UK organisations have to sustainable business practices generally and sustainable FM in particular. The study, based on online research carried out in the Spring with the University of Reading found that, while an overall majority (60 percent) of facilities managers think sustainability is effectively integrated in to their businesses, most operate on the ‘border of compliancy’. The report makes this conclusion based on the fact that its survey showed that over three quarters of respondents (78 percent) claimed that the main driver for the development of sustainability policies is corporate image and a similar proportion (77 percent). The report concludes that this ‘suggests a ‘box-ticking’ approach to sustainability instead of businesses embracing and investing in longer-term practices and the advantages of spending to save’.

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July 15, 2014

Climate committee exposes limited progress on energy efficiency of buildings

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News

In its latest progress report to Parliament, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the statutory body set up to advise the government on meeting long-term carbon goals, says that progress has been limited in energy efficiency improvement in the commercial and industrial sectors and previous good progress in residential energy efficiency fell away with the new policy regime in 2013.While there are specific examples of organisations that have made progress, much potential remains unexploited. This is because the policy landscape is complex and has mixed incentives. It recommends that policies should be simplified to lower administrative costs while, at the same time, improving delivery. There is a need to strengthen incentives and at the same time rationalise the number of policy instruments, leading to lower administrative costs as well as better delivery. (more…)

July 14, 2014

UK’s snail-paced broadband is failing businesses, claims FSB report

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

The UK’s snail-paced broadband infrastructure isn’t up to the demands placed on it by 21^st century businesses and there is not enough ambition to bring it up to speed with that of other nations, according to a new report from the Federation of Small Businesses. The report found that while nearly all small business owners (94 percent) consider a reliable internet connection essential, just 15 percent are happy with their provision and a staggering 45,000 small businesses are still dependant on a dial-up connection and many more are struggling by with slow broadband speeds under 2 Megabits per second (Mbps). The FSB also claims that current Government targets of 24Mbps for 95 per cent of the population and 2Mbps for the remaining five per cent will not meet future demands and that it should commit to delivering a minimum of 10Mbps (megabits per second) for all homes and businesses by 2017 rising to 1Gbps (gigabit per second) by 2030.

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July 14, 2014

How Arthur C Clarke and other writers predicted tablet computing and the iPad

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Technology

Arthur C Clarke was one of those scientists and science fiction writers who made a pretty decent fist of getting his technological predictions right. Not only did he foretell general trends such as flexible working and the future nature of work in cities, he also got a number of details right, too. His screenplay for the Stanley Kubrick directed 2001: A Space Odyssey featured astronauts using something uncannily like an iPad. Indeed, so uncanny was the resemblance that when Apple came to have their long-running global patent tussle with Samsung following the 2010 launch of the iPad, the film was cited by Samsung as evidence that Apple hadn’t come up with the idea of a rectangular screened device at all. The judge ruling in the US case ultimately dismissed this specific argument but did conclude that other real world examples of devices would be admissible.