Facilities management

• How global office design trends adapt themselves to local needs

  Posted on March 21, 2018 by Fresh Workspace

  

  The ongoing evolution in the design of the places we work has much in common with evolution in the natural world. But whereas natural selection is dependent on the famous ‘Blind Watchmaker’ of evolutionary theory to shape creatures in response to the forces in their environment, workplace design is anything but blind – at least […]

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• Harnessing the power of electricity in the design and fit out of offices

  Posted on October 2, 2017 by admin

  

  Legend has it that the American politician, inventor, writer and polymath Benjamin Franklin flew a kite in a storm in 1752 as part of his attempt to understand how to harness the power of electricity. This combination of risk, necessity and invention has marked our relationship with electricity ever since. We are now completely dependent […]

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• The people who design and manage workplaces will be essential in shaping the future of work

  Posted on August 18, 2017 by admin

  

  So far, the main impact of Brexit has been to make the future uncertain. You couldn’t ever argue this was a good thing but past experience tells us – or should tell us – that adversity and uncertainty in the economy often sparks both a renewed focus on property and workplaces and a great deal […]

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• A new dawn for the way we design and manage the workplace

  Posted on December 14, 2016 by Fresh Workspace

  

  Firms have always had concerns about the efficient use of their offices, and for good reason. After staff, real estate is their most expensive and valuable asset. Twenty or more years ago, before the Internet began to unravel the bonds that tied us full time to the workplace, this was a fairly straightforward issue. Up […]

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• The open plan office is no longer the only workplace option, but it is still vital

  Posted on August 31, 2016 by Charles Marks

  For half a century now the default office design model in large parts of the world has been the open plan. Even though that continues to be the case, there are a growing number of voices that are questioning this hegemony and suggesting there may be better ways of designing offices that offer most of […]

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• Meeting expectations in the way we design spaces for teamwork

  Posted on June 1, 2016 by Charles Marks

  There’s an old saying from Peter Drucker, the guru of management gurus, that what gets measured gets managed. It is a truism for many facets of the management role and not least in the way that we measure and use the space within our buildings. Knowing what is actually happening within the workplace is the […]

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• How organic design reflects the way people move around a building

  Posted on October 17, 2015 by Charles Marks

  

  The story goes that, after Rem Koolhaas had been appointed to design the McCormick Tribune Campus Center at the Illinois Institute of technology in 2003, the legendary architect noticed how students had created their own pathways between the existing buildings on the site. The site of the new building included a field in which they […]

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• Smells like team spirit: how good and bad smells at work affect us and our performance

  Posted on June 3, 2015 by Charles Marks

  

  When it comes to what irritates us most about our work colleagues, one of the least talked about is also one of the most aggravating. How an office smells isn’t a factor which merits as much attention as how it looks or the level of noise, yet olfactory perception can have a powerful effect on […]

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• Teleperformance opens its new Baltic Place offices in Gateshead

  Posted on April 2, 2015 by Charles Marks

  

  According to a recent report by property consultancy GVA, the largest commercial property deal completed on Tyneside during 2014 was the 28,300 sq. ft. letting of a new office for Teleperformance at Baltic Place in Gateshead. The relocation of Teleperformance to the new building is not just important because of the scale of the deal […]

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• Tech giants understand how important it is for people to work together

  Posted on March 13, 2015 by Charles Marks

  

  A couple of years ago, Yahoo got itself into a bit of  PR storm when it announced to staff that it wanted them all to work under the same roof.  But as the dust from this storm settled, what became apparent was that Yahoo’s actions were based on a tacit understanding that people work better […]

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