Search Results for: office

October 1, 2014

New London hotspots emerging as affordable office space runs dry

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Flexible working initiatives such as hot-desking and home working have done little to dampen demand for the right office space, finds Cluttons in its latest London property outlook guide, which reveals very few areas of central London are now able to offer good office space for less than £40/sq ft. Echoing research by JLL earlier this week Cluttons reports that for the third quarter of this year current office letting activity was 17 per cent above the long-term average with more than almost 9m sq ft already acquired this year. Occupiers are showing a taste for larger offices, with a total of 21 transactions so far this year measuring upwards of 50,000 sq ft, accounting for a quarter of the space acquired. This is further eroding the supply pipeline, and is leading areas such as Aldgate and Whitechapel, Bethnal Green in the east, and Vauxhall in the south, to emerge as the next peripheral hotspots for those requiring offices on a more affordable basis.

September 30, 2014

Occupiers’ expansion plans fuel demand for Central London office space

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Amazon to move to Foster & Partners’ designed development Principal Place

The already intense levels of competition for prime Central London office space look set to increase. New data by JLL reports that leasing figures in the Central London office market are set to top those reached in 2013, with City lettings showing potential to reach over 7 million sq ft for the second year in a row and the West End on track for 3.3 million sq ft by the close of 2014. Strong take-up in these markets, combined with a resurged market in the Docklands, will see Central London take-up figures on track to exceed last year’s total of 11 million sq ft. While consolidation and lease expiries have been main drivers up to now, a buoyant economy means occupiers expansion plans are bringing new requirements to the market. Amazon’s recent decision to take a 400,000 sq ft pre-let at mixed-used development Principal Place at Shoreditch, is an early example of this and it’s expected more occupiers will follow suit.

September 26, 2014

RICS Scotland officially opens its new Edinburgh offices

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

RICS new Scottish headquarters were officially opened this week at Edinburgh’s iconic Princes Street by Minister for Local Government and Planning, Derek Mackay, MSP. The new, state of the art offices, located at 125 Princes Street, will also host Planning Aid Scotland, Built Environment Forum Scotland and the Scottish Arbitration Centre, with the idea being to create collaborative built environment hub in the heart of Scotland’s capital city. Explained Sarah Speirs, Director RICS Scotland: “Throughout this process we have been very keen to recognise and utilise the professional skills and expertise of our members, including the talents of our building surveying members, who we have now been working on the design and fit out of our transformational space at 125 Princes Street for the past couple of months.” The new open plan offices, which benefit from views of Princes Street Gardens and Edinburgh Castle were designed using BIM technology as a best practice example for the sector. More →

September 24, 2014

‘Overwhelming evidence’ of link between office design, productivity and wellness claims report

by Mark Eltringham • Briefing, Knowledge, News, Workplace design

A new report from the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) claims it has “overwhelming evidence” that office design significantly impacts the health, wellbeing and productivity of staff. Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Offices: The Next Chapter for Green Building reports on a range of factors – from air quality and lighting, to views of nature and interior layout – can affect the health, satisfaction and job performance of office workers. Understanding the link between workers and their workplace helps to drive the business case for higher quality, healthy and greener buildings, valued by investors, developers and tenants alike. With salaries and benefits typically responsible for 90 percent of an organization’s expenditure, any higher construction or occupation costs are far outweighed by even small improvements in staff performance.

September 17, 2014

Avanta Serviced Office Group to open Shoreditch business centre at heart of ‘Tech City’

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

Avanta Serviced Office Group has signed a deal to establish a new business centre in the heart of London’s Tech City at The Eagle, a 27 storey art-deco-style development on City Road, EC1, from Mount Anvil – Central London’s specialist residential-led developer. The centre is set to open on the 1st March 2015. The new centre will provide over 26,000 square feet of flexible office space over two floors, with approximately 400 desks. Set within a mixed-use development comprising retail, affordable accommodation, offices and high-end residential, it is located within TFL’s Zone 1, approximately five minutes’ walk from Old Street Rail and Underground Station, just two stops from Kings Cross.bThis is Avanta’s first site within Tech City, also known as Silicon Roundabout, which is the third largest technology start-up cluster in the world and home to over 15,000 growing businesses.

September 17, 2014

Availability of office space in central London has fallen a fifth since last year

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News

Increased pressure on London rents are being predicted as the latest figures by DTZ show the availability of office space in central London is now 20 per cent lower than the same period in 2013, and 30 per cent below the 10 year average. While London office take up rose by 17 per cent over the same period in 2013, all Central London markets, except the South East fringe, are seeing year-on-year decreases in supply of at least 15 per cent. The North West fringe, the Docklands and the West End have seen the biggest falls in availability over the past 12 months (down 53%, 36% and 30% respectively) with availability in the City falling by 17 per cent over the same time period. A significant development has been the availability of second hand space falling by a third (33%) to 5.6 million sq ft over the past 12 months – 47 per cent below the ten year average. More →

September 4, 2014

London ranked the best city to invest in major office refurbishment

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

London offers the best returns on office refurbishment of any city in the world, according to a new report from ARCACDIS. The firm’s survey of buildings more than 20 years old in thirteen cities found that returns on capital invested in major refurbs (which extend the life of the office by up to 20 years) in London were nearly ten percent, significantly higher than second placed Warsaw (7.5%) and Milan (6%). However, London was only ranked second for return on investment in minor office refurbishment, defined as a refurbs that aims to extend the life of the building by up to 5 years. Top place in this instance went to Madrid (9.6%), followed by London (8.5%) and Shanghai (7.9%). The least attractive market for office refurbishment was found to be Dubai, which the report claims is due to the large supply of new office space.

September 3, 2014

Increased use of mobile devices give office workers space to move

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Technology, Workplace design

Office workers now spend up to six hours a day working on mobile devices rather than using desk computers; with men generally working with three or more mobile devices while women choose to work with a maximum of two. This is according to the intermediate results of a Global Posture Study carried out by Steelcase to identify which type of work environment fits different workers best. It reveals that the Millennial generation, born between 1979 and 2000, change posture during the course of the day more than any other age group. Female workers tend to choose postures where they can withdraw from the environment, while men prefer open seating postures where they can lean back. The results of the posture study underlines the fact that employers must take an increasingly innovative approach to creating working environment which supports the various ways of working of the employees to guarantee their wellbeing and productivity. More →

September 2, 2014

Office planting improves workers’ quality of life and productivity finds study

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News, Workplace design

Claims by office designers and suppliers that office planting has wider health benefits for occupiers than just making the place look more attractive have been given a boost in a new academic study which provides some empirical evidence. In the first field study of its kind, researchers found enriching a ‘lean’ office with plants could increase productivity by as much as 15 per cent. The study, which involved academics from the University of Exeter; the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, and the University of Queensland, Australia examined the impact of ‘lean’ and ‘green’ offices on staff’s perceptions of air quality, concentration, and workplace satisfaction, and monitored productivity levels over subsequent months in two large commercial offices in the UK and The Netherlands. It concludes that ‘green’ offices with plants make staff happier and more productive than ‘lean’ designs stripped of greenery. More →

August 11, 2014

Natural daylight increases wellness of office workers finds new study

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

The importance of exposure to natural light to employee health and the priority architectural designs of office environments should place on natural daylight exposure for workers has been highlighted in a new study. According to researchers from Northwestern Medicine and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign office workers with more light exposure at the office had longer sleep duration, better sleep quality, more physical activity and better quality of life compared to office workers with less light exposure in the workplace. Employees 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 than employees who did not have the natural light exposure in the workplace. There also was a trend for workers in offices with windows to have more physical activity than those without windows. More →

August 11, 2014

Government extends public estate scheme as DCLG moves in with Home Office

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Property, Public Sector

The UK government has announced that it is to extend its groundbreaking One Public Estate scheme to a further twenty local authorities. The programme aims to divest and consolidate government-owned land and property to cut public sector spending and boost economic growth and regeneration. The government believes the initial phase will save £21m in running costs and £88m in capital receipts, generate around £40m for local economies and create an estimated 5,500 jobs and 7,500 homes over the next five years. The Cabinet Office is now looking to build on this with the extension of the schemes to councils including Liverpool and Birmingham city centres as well as six from Greater Manchester and Cornwall, Southampton and Plymouth. The Government Property Unit will provide funding and training to the participating authorities.

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.