Search Results for: workplace

Build upon creative success urges design campaign

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The #includedesign campaign has urged policy makers to revisit proposals to include creative subjects in the English Baccalaureate and build upon the success of initiatives like Tech City. This is the ‘brand’ name for the creative technology community around Shoreditch in east London, with more than 3,000 creative tech firms, employing over 50,000 people. Last December the design industry wrote an open letter to the Secretary of State for Education warning him against the omission of Design & Technology and Art & Design from the EBacc. (more…)

Changes to Construction and Design Regs delayed

Proposed changes to the Construction and Design Management Regulations (CDM) 2007 have been delayed. The draft changes will now only be presented to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Board for consideration in March 2013 at the very earliest. The CDM regulations, apply to all construction work in the UK, comprising construction, alteration, fitting-out, commissioning, renovation, repair, upkeep, redecoration or other maintenance, decommissioning, demolition or dismantling, underwent a review last year, with industry practice found to have a significant influence on how the regulations are implemented. (more…)

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Greater clarity required for UK infrastructure plan

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The National Audit Office has called on the UK government to provide greater clarity to taxpayers and consumers on how it will meet its national infrastructure plan. The government expects £310 billion to be spent by 2015 and beyond on new infrastructure projects in sectors such as energy, rail, roads, water, waste, flood defences and digital communications. The government is looking to private companies to own and finance around 64 per cent of the £310 billion, with the burden of funding likely to shift towards the public as consumers rather than taxpayers.

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Global wellness spend has increased worldwide

Spending on wellness has doubled in the last decade and will continue to grow at an impressive rate, according to a new global trends report by McCann Truth Central which canvassed the views of 7,000 people from the US, UK, Japan, China, Turkey, South Africa and Brazil. The Truth about Wellness reveals that wellness has shifted from being a perceived luxury to being considered a fundamental human right and the average person now believes they will live to 79, an optimism which is being fueled by a technical revolution which directly impacts upon health.
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Shard and Galaxy Soho contend for design of the year

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The Design Museum has announced the contenders for the sixth annual Designs of the Year. They include the best designs from around the world in the last 12 months across seven categories: Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics, Product and Transport. Selected by a panel of distinguished nominators, the awards compile the most original and exciting designs, prototypes and designers in the world today – brought together in a Design Museum exhibition from 20 March – 7 July 2013. (more…)

New research highlights trends in technology market

image: ../art/MacBookProDesktop_2x.pngA new report from Deloitte has highlighted what it believes are the key trends in the market for telecommunications, media and technology as part of its annual TMT Predictions research project. Amongst other things it predicts a slowdown in the uptake of Bring Your Own device polices, the enduring appeal of the laptop,  a change in the way we protect our data and devices, and the annual market for smartphones hitting one billion units for the first time as 4G takes off in the UK.

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Urban design ideas needed for Vauxhall missing link

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RIBA has announced the launch of a new international design competition for Vauxhall on London’s South Bank. The Business Improvement District (BID) for Vauxhall is seeking ideas to improve and enhance the public realm, providing the ‘Missing Link’ between the New US Embassy Quarter and the South Bank’s cultural hub. The competition is open to architects, landscape designers, urban designers and students worldwide. As with the New York ‘High Line’ competition multi-disciplinary design teams are encouraged. (more…)

JLL’s CEO new Chairman of the UK Green Building Council

Jones Lang LaSalle’s Andrew Gould has succeeded Dan Labbad, Group CEO of Lend Lease, as Chairman of the UK Green Building Council. He takes up the position at a time when business leaders are increasingly focused on the need to show leadership on climate change and recognise the opportunities for green growth in the UK. The UK Green Building Council is an industry-led campaign group, part of a global network of Councils that are active in over 90 countries worldwide. (more…)

Job fulfilment, not pay, motivates Generation Y talent

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Today’s 20-to-30-something workforce, representing the management class of the future, values job fulfilment over financial reward, according to research by the iOpener Institute, which analysed responses from over 18,000 professionals. The study shows that Generation Y, the digital cohort born after the early 1980s, are motivated to stay with their employer, and to actively recommend their organisation to friends, by the level to which they are fulfilled in their job, rather than their levels of pay. (more…)

Cloud computing set to transform business models

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As an issue explored in our own briefing on the technologies that will do most to transform the workplace during 2013, we know the Cloud is set to be adopted (and understood) by more and more organisations and individuals in the coming year. Doubtless it will follow the usual process of technological adoption as people begin to understand its unintended consequences as well as its uses but it pays to know what some of its implications will be for office designers and managers as shown by this programme from Deloitte.

Goldman Sachs submits plans for troubled European HQ

Following recent reports that a growing number of firms were locating in the burgeoning creative centres of East London,investment bank Goldman Sachs has finally submitted plans for the 1.2m sq ft nine storey headquarters building KPF in Farringdon Street. The KPF-designed development will replace two existing buildings – the 13 storey Fleet Building and adjacent Plumtree Court which Goldman Sachs acquired in 2011.

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