Search Results for: london

July 11, 2018

Katrina Kostic Samen confirmed as President of the British Council for Offices

by Neil Franklin • News, Property, Workplace design

The British Council for Offices (BCO) today welcomes Katrina Kostic Samen as its new President. Katrina Kostic Samen, Founder and Managing Partner at KKS Strategy, formally takes over the position from Ken Shuttleworth, Founding Partner of Make Architects, at the BCO’s Annual General Meeting in London today, Wednesday 11th July. As Chair of the BCO Annual Conference held earlier this year in Berlin, Katrina set out the vision for her Presidential year, challenging delegates to look at the workplace from multiple occupier perspectives, and to ensure that they are designing and delivering offices which are inclusive and provide for a diverse workforce.

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July 11, 2018

Challenging some of the most commonly held misconceptions about coworking

by John Williams • Comment, Coworking

There are a number of misconceptions that dominate much of the writing around flexible workspace, despite all the press coverage and discussion around coworking over the last two years. Yet even in this comparatively short space of time, a number of misconceptions about the market have managed to take hold. Some of them are intuitive but wrong to some or other degree. Some are distorted by coverage. Some arise for other reasons. And we know this thanks to the extensive data gathered in Instant’s latest market report. So here in this piece, I am going to try to shatter some of the myths around flex workspace and coworking in particular.

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July 11, 2018

Avenue HQ is named as Coworking Space of the Year by IPSE

by Neil Franklin • Coworking, News

Liverpool’s Avenue HQ has been crowned ‘National Co-Working Space of the Year’ by The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE). The award claims to ‘recognise and celebrate the important role coworking spaces play in creating a nurturing, inclusive and stimulating environment for the UK’s 4.8 million-strong self-employed workforce’. The coworking industry is booming globally as companies of all sizes recognise the importance of working environment on employee and business performance. Pioneered by start-ups, entrepreneurs and freelancers, a growing number of companies, large and small, are incorporating the concept and rapidly reaping the benefits.

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July 9, 2018

Hong Kong Central remains most expensive office market in the World, according To CBRE

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

Hong Kong Central remains the most expensive office market in the world, according to CBRE’s annual Global Prime Office Occupancy Costs report. Hong Kong Central’s overall prime occupancy costs of US$307 per sq. ft. per year topped the “most expensive” list, followed by London West End (US$235 per sq. ft.), Beijing Finance Street (US$201 per sq. ft.), Hong Kong Kowloon (US$190 per sq. ft.) and Beijing Central Business District (US$189 per sq. ft.).

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July 6, 2018

A storm brewing around the workplace and facilities management

by Cathy Hayward • Comment, Facilities management, News, Workplace design

In Shakespeare’s plays, the sky often goes dark and a storm starts to brew as a prelude to tragedy or violence creating a sense of foreboding. And so it was at today’s BIFM AGM in the lead-up to the special resolution to change the name of the institute from the British Institute of Facilities Management to the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management. After a fire alarm test appositely kicked off the event, sun poured through the windows and ceiling panes of the Friends Meeting House in Manchester as BIFM chairman Steve Roots gave an update on the institute’s performance in 2017 and plans for 2018. As he introduced the format for the three ordinary resolutions, the sun dipped behind a cloud and the room was plunged into gloom causing murmurs of nervous laughter among the 80-strong audience. (more…)

July 5, 2018

White paper: How the workplace is pioneering the use of data in organisations

by Anthony Brown • Briefing, Features, Premium Content, Technology, Workplace design

In 2017, a content creator called Oobah Butler decided that he wanted to do something with the experience he’d gained writing fake positive restaurant reviews on TripAdvisor. What if, he wondered, he set up an entirely fictitious restaurant based in the shed in his garden and then started to manipulate TripAdvisor ratings? What happened surpassed his wildest expectations. In just six months, The Shed at Dulwich became the top-rated restaurant in London, even though nobody had ever actually eaten there, based solely on fake reviews, fake pictures and the word of mouth created by a complete inability for anybody to book a table.

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July 4, 2018

Why you should definitely stand in meetings (and not care what others think about it)

by Benjamin Gardner Lee Smith and Louise Mansfield • Features, Wellbeing

People who stand in meetings may enjoy a number of health benefits, but it can also make them feel self-conscious, anxious about how others perceive them, and disengaged from the meeting. These findings, taken from our recent study, suggest that efforts to encourage office workers to sit less and move more must acknowledge the realities of the workplace that conspire to keep people chained to their seats. Sitting has been linked to adverse health outcomes, including increased risk of obesity, heart disease, some cancers, and poorer mental health. While some evidence suggests that the harms of sitting can be offset by at least one daily hour of moderate physical activity, this seems an unrealistic target. (more…)

June 29, 2018

Edinburgh is best UK location for growing technology businesses but office space is becoming scarce

by Neil Franklin • News, Property, Technology

Scotland’s capital city is the best place for tech companies looking to scale up, access funding, and do business in, according to a new Government backed report examining the UK’s tech landscape. Edinburgh tech companies responded with the highest approval rating in the UK when asked to assess how good their city was for ‘doing business’ – a combination of sub factors including access to finance and talent – as part of The Tech Nation 2018 Report – an annual series that captures the strength, depth and breadth of digital tech activity in the UK which employs over one million people. Although 62 percent of Edinburgh’s tech community are satisfied with local access to affordable office space, commercial property firm JLL, who sponsor the report, said one of the main challenges which now faces a burgeoning tech industry in Edinburgh is the room to accommodate continued growth of the sector.

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June 28, 2018

Ten demonstrable truths about the workplace you may not know

by Kerstin Sailer • Comment, Facilities management, Features, Workplace design

The science of the workplace has gained a lot of interest over the last few years, highlighting recurring patterns of human behaviour as well as how organisational behaviour relates to office design. In theory, knowledge from this growing body of research could be used to inform design. In practice, this is rarely the case. A survey of 420 architects and designers highlighted a large gap between research and practice: while 80 percent of respondents agreed that more evidence was needed on the impact of design, 68 percent admitted they never reviewed literature and 71 percent said they never engaged in any sort of post-occupancy evaluation. Only 5 percent undertake a formal POE and just 1 percent do so in a rigorous fashion. Not a single practitioner reported a report on the occupied scheme, despite its importance in understanding the impact of a design.

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June 28, 2018

Small flexible workspace operators are biggest winners as trend for coworking continues to grow

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

While the likes of WeWork have dominated the headlines over the past year, the number of smaller, more niche coworking operators, has grown significantly and now makes up 83 percent of the total flexible workspace market. The latest research from The Instant Group, which claims to be the world’s largest flexible workspace provider, suggests that the number of centres in the market run by smaller independent operators has grown to 83 percent of the London market. The increase of 20+ desk enquiries is evidence of growing demand as larger firms have started exploring flexible options rather than taking more conventional leases.

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June 26, 2018

Global employers focus on mobile talent to help support new ways of working

by Sara Bean • Cities, Facilities management, News, Workplace

The digital era, ageing populations, skills shortages, and unpredictable political and economic contexts are persuading multinationals to focus more on mobile talent, new ways of working and assessing the cost of expatriate packages for international employees that are critical to the future of work. This is according to Mercer’s 24th annual Cost of Living Survey which reveals that factors such as instability of housing markets and fluctuating inflation, currencies and prices for goods and services, are impacting the cost of doing business in various cities around the world. UK cities have significantly risen in the ranking this year. (more…)

June 21, 2018

The future of the workplace emerges from the mists at Neocon

by John Sacks • Features, Furniture, Workplace design

Chicago is one of the world’s great cities. Its dramatic lake and river setting, its magnificent architecture and its raw energy inspire the locals and businesses to achieve great things. People work and play very hard. Competition is fierce both in business as in the way the people relate to each other, and befits a city heavily influenced by waves of immigration down the ages. Apart from somewhat overly aggressive and noisy driving, if there is friction, you don’t sense it and it isn’t obvious. Most locals seem genuinely open and friendly, including to strangers, and happy to get on with their lives without troubling others. Perhaps they’re all being buoyed up by the great street music which is everywhere.