Search Results for: office design

April 15, 2014

The six most important dimensions of wellbeing in the workplace

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Workplace design

Designing an office environment using six key elements of wellbeing will benefit both employers and their staff, leading to a healthier, more productive workplace finds a new report. Steelcase’s WorkSpace Futures global research team, which included a psychologist, a designer and an ergonomist conducted an in depth study on existing wellbeing research, surveys, indicators and theories and found that the key to physical and mental wellbeing is the emotional experience, which can be influenced by a person’s surroundings, actions, and way of perceiving the world. The six dimensions of wellbeing that can be impacted by the design of the physical environment are; optimism, mindfulness, authenticity, belonging, meaning and vitality. Together these create what Steelcase refers to as an “interconnected workplace,” that offers employees choice and control over where and how they work. (more…)

April 10, 2014

A rail network carrying people on blurred lines into the future of work

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

The UK rail industry has a somewhat ambiguous relationship with the idea of remote working. While the business case for the controversial HS2 rail line was until recently predicated on the remarkable assumption that people don’t work on trains (now replaced by another set of assumptions to get to the numbers it needs for politicians to go along with it all), the number of journeys people make on trains has been increasing steadily for some time, regardless of the potential for technology to make many of those journeys unnecessary. So while we’re already into uncharted territory in our ability to forecast the impact of new technology and working practices on the need for physical presence, the train and the rail network does offer us a touchstone for thinking about it. And what we find in that respect is a blurring of the lines between several worlds, as we do in pretty much every aspect of our lives.

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April 7, 2014

RICS’ operational headquarters to relocate to Coventry Friargate Development

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, News, Property

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has announced that it will be relocating its Coventry operational headquarters to a new building in the 37 acre sustainable, mixed-use Friargate development in the city. From 2017, RICS plans to lease 36,000 sq. ft. of space in the second building on the site, adjacent to Coventry railway station. The district will showcase cutting edge low carbon building design and regeneration policies by using local businesses throughout the construction phase to provide improved public transport links, affordable housing and public parks. RICS claims that ‘through a connection to an ultra-efficient combined heat and power generator, Friargate will be at the forefront of sustainable commercial accommodation, reducing both RICS’ carbon footprint and operating costs and offering RICS employees a much better work environment and surrounding area than they currently have.’

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March 26, 2014

The enduring need to put a bit more of the M into facilities management

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, Workplace design

Shutterstock’s new offices, Empire State Building

It may well be a statement of the obvious, but it’s worth reminding ourselves sometimes that the term facilities management consists of two words. There is often a bit too much emphasis on the facilities and a bit too little on the management and sometimes we look for design and product solutions to problems that would be better managed in some way. You can put this down to a number of things but to some extent at least it’s down the idea that when you are determined to use a hammer, every job looks like a nail. Obviously the media takes some of the blame for this mindset because it often earns income from businesses who want to sell their stuff to solve particular problems rather than focus on the idea that many of them can be addressed either as a management issue or in combination with products and design.

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March 18, 2014

Morgan Lovell to research impact of the workplace on wellbeing

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design

One of the latest pieces of research to explore the possible links between the workplace and individual wellbeing is to be carried out by office fit-out firm Morgan Lovell in conjunction with the British Council for Offices (BCO) and workplace analytics tool HATCH. The firm hopes to create an original piece of research that will help to quantify the impact the workplace has on wellbeing and identify the causal links. The firms says it hopes to use this to create a business case for occupiers who would like to invest in designing offices in a way that fosters wellness and productivity and is inviting interested people and firms to take part. The firm says the survey takes less than 10 minutes and can be found here. To say thank you to respondents to the survey for their time, Morgan Lovell will donate £1 to Comic Relief for every person that completes the questionnaire. The findings will be published in April.

March 17, 2014

The latest issue of Insight is now available to view online

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

In this week’s Insight newsletter, available to view online; Workplace Insight confirms a partnership agreement with Europe’s largest commercial interior design event, Clerkenwell Design Week [pictured]; evidence that employees who use treadmill workstations as they work not only receive physical benefits but also are more productive; and research finds that our brains are adapting to the changing demands placed on them by technology. Simon Heath presents part two of his field guide to workplace terminology and Demitri Maldonado explains why FM has to embrace its softer side, focus on people skills and develop them to ensure success. We also present a gallery of stunning images showcasing Google’s new offices in Kuala Lumpur. To automatically receive our weekly newsletter, simply add your email address to the box on the home page.

March 11, 2014

A field guide to workplace terminology (part 2)

by Simon Heath • Comment, Facilities management

A year ago we published the first part of Simon Heath’s acid lexicon of the terms people use to obscure the reality of what it is they actually mean. Part One can still be read here. While much has changed over the past year, we are fortunate that Simon’s corrosive, witty and informed take on corporate bullshit, and especially that applied to the parochial field of workplace design and management remains constant. He’s part of a long tradition of those who apply satire to skewer logorrhea, doublethink and obfuscation, the best example of which remains Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary which is quite remarkably caustic and spares no one. First published in 1881 it maintains much of it power and topicality, for example in its definition of Conservative as: “a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.”

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March 3, 2014

World Green Building Council to quantify productivity benefits of sustainability

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Environment, Facilities management, Property

In an attempt to broaden the business case for sustainable building, the World Green Building Council has launched a new initiative to define the productivity and wellbeing benefits associated with low carbon and sustainable property. The initiative, launched ahead of this week’s Ecobuild conference in London, will be steered by a group of experts who will produce a final report later in the year. The premise of the study is to show that, as well as cutting costs and improving environmental performance, green buildings have a beneficial effect on the health, wellness and productivity of occupants. According to the announcement, around 85 per cent of an average organisation’s costs are associated with salaries and other costs of employment so a modest improvement in productivity can have a huge impact.

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February 25, 2014

City of London grants planning permission for ‘Gotham City’

by Sara Bean • Architecture, News, Property

Planning permission has been granted from the City of London for a £12.7 billion scheme at 40 Leadenhall Street. The building – dubbed ‘Gotham City’ – is located beside the Gherkin at the heart of the City’s eastern cluster of tall buildings and will vary in height between 7 and 34 office storeys. It will feature two additional basement levels, a roof level plant (total height 170m AOD), a flexible retail/café and restaurant uses at ground floor level and café/restaurant with roof terrace overlooking Fenchurch Street. The total size of the building is 910,000 sq ft, split between 890,000 sq ft office and c. 20,000 sq ft retail. As part of the design by Make architects; a grade II listed building at 19-21 Billiter Street, built in 1865, will be restored and integrated into the proposed scheme. (more…)

February 24, 2014

HS2 is a project for today projected into an uncertain future

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Technology

Barely a day passes in the media without some new battleground opening up in the debate about the UK’s plan to develop HS2, the high speed line connecting London with Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and, for some reason, a place nobody’s heard of halfway between Derby and Nottingham called Toton (pop. 7,298). While the debate rages about the cost, the economic benefits, regional rebalancing, environmental impact, route and why the Scots and others are paying for a project that may leave them with worse train services, one of the fundamental flaws with the case for HS2 goes largely disregarded. It is that this is clearly a project designed for today, but that won’t be complete for another twenty years. The world then will be very different and, unfortunately, time isn’t quite as malleable as the movies would have us believe.

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