January 10, 2025
The Sustainable Design Forum – a one-day interactive event designed specifically for workplace designers and specifiers – is returning to the Crypt on the Green in Clerkenwell, London for its third year on Thursday 25th April 2025. With a focus on ‘People and Planet’, this year’s event has been expanded to include additional workplace topics. (more…)
January 3, 2025
Workers are resisting the so-called return to office due to a lack of desk space, following widespread reductions by companies in the wake of Covid. A fifth of workers cited a shortage of desks and facilities among their top three reasons for avoiding the office, according to a survey by real estate consultancy Remit Consulting. The firm claims that businesses may have scaled back desk numbers too aggressively after the pandemic spurred a rise in home working. (more…)
December 19, 2024
Now a firm fixture on the design event calendar, Workspace Design Show has revealed the first raft of names who will make up its speaker programme for the upcoming edition in February 2025. Once again bringing the commercial interior design industry’s most inspiring and creative leaders together, the Workspace Design Talks programme features senior figures from architecture and design such as Alessandro Ranaldi, Partner, Head of Workplace Consultancy, Foster + Partners; Helen Berresford, Head of ID:SR at Sheppard Robson and Adrienne Lau, Senior Associate, Heatherwick Studio, Cristiano Testi, Principal Director, tp bennett, and Angela Bardino, Senior Associate Director – Interiors, Jacobs. (more…)
December 17, 2024
Originally published in 2019. There are writers whose language pervades our discourse so extensively that even those who have never heard of them will echo not only their sentiments but also their means of expression. One of these people is Charles Handy, who has just published his latest book 21 Letters on Life and its Challenges at the age of 87. His work resonates to this day and not least because he was so far ahead of the curve in detailing many of the characteristics of modern organisations and the challenges created for everybody by the changing nature of work and business. (more…)
November 26, 2024
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has expressed support for the UK Government’s ‘Get Britain Working’ initiative, which aims to tackle economic inactivity and promote greater inclusion within the workforce. However, the CIPD has urged the government to take more ambitious steps to elevate the status of apprenticeships and strengthen partnerships between employers and Jobcentres. (more…)
November 19, 2024
A significant proportion of global office space is at risk of obsolescence, with up to £1 trillion required to revitalise aging office buildings, according to a new report from real estate firm JLL. The report, titled Opportunity through Obsolescence, sets out to highlight the challenges posed by outdated structures, increasingly stringent regulations, and shifting tenant preferences, but also identifies opportunities for property owners and cities to create long-term value through investment and adaptation. (more…)
November 19, 2024
The new digital issue of Works magazine is available for you here. In this issue: we report from Orgatec with mixed feelings; we have four project stories from Toronto, Salford and London; interviews with Karim Rashid and Oskar Zieta; consider how the 21st Century Office has its roots in 20th Century Holland; ask where all the furniture icons went; profile Future Designs; and all the regular commentary, company news and features you need. (more…)
November 8, 2024
Recently I wrote a short article based on a 1993 Architects’ Journal interview with IBM’s then design manager of property, Peter Wingrave. It reminded me how discussions about new ways of working – now including that neologism hybrid working – have been a constant throughout my career. In that interview, Wingrave is quoted as saying: “I think there are interesting times ahead for offices. We are already seeing the slow breakdown of the traditional office which people come to in the morning and leave at night…We would like our offices to catch the social spirit of an old gentleman’s club; you just pop in when you need to. You get more out of people that way… we’re lucky if our marketing areas are ever 40 per cent occupied … It’s crazy to build, run, heat, light and decorate a building as if people were there when 60 per cent of the time you know they are not”. (more…)
November 7, 2024
The Workspace Design Show (26 – 27 February 2025, BDC, London) has announced the launch of the “Workspace Wellbeing Hero” initiative, recognising and celebrating exceptional individuals in the workspace design industry who go above and beyond to support the wellbeing of others through acts of kindness and resilience in their work environments. This initiative shines a spotlight on those who make a tangible difference in workplace culture through selflessness, compassion, and perseverance. (more…)
November 6, 2024
The outlook for the European commercial property market is cautiously optimistic despite growing geopolitical uncertainty and concerns about economic growth, with London, Madrid and Paris emerging as the standout performers, according to a new report by PwC and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). The report – Emerging Trends in Real Estate Europe 2025 outlines how market players believe ‘a new normal’ is emerging as valuations have come down and interest rates regain some level of predictability in a market characterised by higher inflation and interest rates, and geopolitical and economic uncertainties. This led to more than 80 percent of survey respondents expecting business confidence and profits to stay the same or rise in 2025, with around half predicting increases in both. (more…)
October 29, 2024
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…)
January 7, 2025
Here’s how to support neurodivergent employees at work
by Stephanie Clarke • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace