INFORM Opinion
Richard Burge
‘
We are not convinced people are working
T
’
unless we get them into an office
he live/work demographic where I think we have to be radi- and core development flexibility
trend has long been herald- cal and intelligent. Work is, cru- to building so that, during its life,
ed, but how much of a real- cially, as much a social as an eco- its space can be switched between
ity is it yet? Sure, there has been nomic activity. Staff do like to commercial and residential use or
some experimentation: we see old interact, and they do like to meet. simultaneous mixed use. All of
breweries or warehouses convert- We must not kid ourselves that the this will also reduce the environ-
ed into bijou apartments for jew- discussions over a coffee are mental impacts of the building.
ellery designers, or big-name always about work. But nor As for urban planning, many of
architects living and working Business management ‘needs to be should we demean the business those commercial urban areas
above their well-lit design spaces.
more enlightened about work places’
need for, and value of, informal or which hitherto have resembled
But this has so far been sympto- formal face-to-face meetings. paved deserts after working hours
matic of the live/work concept in a world where virtually all office However, although companies could be housing a significant
practice: in the main, apart from a work is now carried out on a com- will always need to bring their semi-residential community.
few grand professionals, it has puter, most managers can tell when staff together regularly for meet- Transport systems will need to
been only our elite who have had someone is producing because ings, they could more imaginative- anticipate the development of flex-
the privilege of lying in bed for an they can see the output on their ly and clearly classify the way in ible working location clusters.
extra hour and still being at their own computer screens. So school which they organise and allocate Most challenging of all, a com-
throne, or Speaker’s Chair, before roll-call methods are no longer their time. Staff could come into plete change in the ethos of health
the rest of us. meaningful checks on productivity HQ for, say, one day a week of and safety legislation and regula-
Even the notion of displaced (if they ever were). meetings and discussion. tion would be called for.
work – large organisations The other reason for the inertia And the prize? If we get all this
working in small hubs close may be that it not only takes real Hub working right, at the macro level we could
to the communities where financial pressure to trigger Does all this mean that for the rest greatly lessen the pressures on our
employees lived – has never really change in but that the technology of the time everyone would be urban infrastructure and our
taken off. The mass relocation of to facilitate that change must also home-based? Not if the next big creaking, commuting-dominated
government agencies such as the come along at the right time. step is – as I believe it should be – transport systems – with all the
National Insurance system or the During the last recession in the towards hub working, viz the con- environmental sustainability ben-
DLVC simply swapped one mas- early 1990s, there simply was not version of all those empty floors efits this would accrue.
sive office in London for another the communications infrastruc- above banks and building societies In the longer run, we could even
in Newcastle or Swansea – with a ture to enable home or offsite in town centres, where people significantly reduce the UK’s
different, slightly shorter com- working. Now, with fibre optic from the same company or even unhealthily South-east-centric
mute. And top management in the cables and laptops, it can. different businesses can come into agglomeration of business and
private sector have also failed to Moreover, the use of data centres work a short distance and have the wealth. And, at the personal level,
see the light. I have a favourite café and “cloud” computing systems, benefit and convenience of an for so many workers it could
from which I can see the chauf- based in countries with plenty of office but not have to spend huge reduce the daily stress of their
feur-driven cars ferrying the busi- renewable power (and where you chunks of their lives – and a con- working lifestyles.
ness elite across London, their simply open the door to cool siderable part of their personal Indeed it could even turn a
passengers thumbing Blackberries down the computers), have carbon budget – trailing into cities (once-a-week) commute to
to try to save two hours otherwise improved not only accessibility each day. Why should the benefits London into a positive pleasure:
wasted travelling time. Why? but also data security. of a single desk in a multi-purpose that latte could be savoured from a
So is the near future to be one of office space be restricted to the china mug (with notebook open)
Outdated attitudes deserted railway platforms at start-up company? rather than spilled from your
One reason lies in our country’s 08.30, with people working isolat- There are a number of implica- paper cup down your suit, as you
antediluvian working methods – ed in their converted spare bed- tions for businesses and govern- wedge yourself into the Northern
or, more specifically, work supervi- room with the occasional video ments. Firstly, business manage- line for yet another ever-lengthen-
sion attitudes. For some reason, we conference-call with the boss, who ments need to be more progressive ing working day in your ever-
are not convinced that people are is, in turn, sitting in his new city and enlightened about defining lengthening (courtesy of the pen-
working unless we get them into apartment converted from the and assessing work places and sions crisis) working life.
an office and see their heads down trading floor in Docklands? Well, practices.
over a desk. Of course, if you are no. That might do wonders for a Secondly, property developers Richard Burge is sustainability
manufacturing, you do need peo- company’s carbon budget but it and their occupier clients need to director at the Property Merchant
ple to come into the factory. Yet, in would drive their staff mad. This is design and build in greater shell Group > pmguk.com
14 June 2009 ❘ Sustainable Business
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