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one that is evolving in line with the way they aim to use the building.”


Stamatis: “Everything that today means infrastructure in a building becomes very relevant, because bringing an older building into use as a modern workplace will produce very different demands.”


Fuze’s Matthew Glock felt workplace technology and transportation access infrastructure was important, but so was the immediate workplace vicinity with potential access to shopping, bars and leisure amenities.


employers providing employees with more varied workspaces within the overall workplace environment. “Square footages have not changed dramatically, companies are merely providing more of a welcoming home environment in which to be productive.”


Head: “Agile working is now the default position. Until now, occupiers have not necessarily been using less space, just allocating their space more imaginatively.” Having embraced new working practices, occupiers are now able to better assess their actual space usage, hence the occupancy level change in newbuild design.


Medhurst revealed that the average UK office occupancy is 64% – “So why plan for any more?” He advised planning to maximum average occupancy levels rather than workforce headcount. “It’s the different space types that matter, not the space size. People need to be empowered during their work to make different activity zone choices within the workplace environment.”


Co-working, collaboration and comfort


Sarah Dean


Is your finger on the occupancy pulse?


Intensity of space usage is forcing landlords to future-proof their premises’ infrastructure stated Batho. “Whereas 10-15 years ago standard building design used to be one person per 12 sq m, now it’s one to eight and sometimes occupiers sweat their assets even more, so that has to be factored into buildings.”


The building’s use can also determine the need for parking spaces or internal facilities because of the working week ‘occupancy pulses’ created by flexible and remote workstyles.


Glock agreed, exampling that Monday’s offices were always busy, Friday’s not so. Space usage expanded or contracted during the week due to scheduled meetings, unscheduled collaborations, video-conferencing, etc. With no structured nine to five working employer- occupiers needed to examine the efficient and effective use of workspace.


Nicholson: “For occupiers it will still come down to cost, every square foot counts. So cost- effective workplace analysis at an early stage, as carried out by 360, is vitally important.”


Head confirmed that Thames Valley office developments have typically been designed to 1:10 sq m occupancy standard but 1:8 is a growing trend. This isn’t ‘cramming people in’, merely reflecting the requirement for buildings to provide the different kinds of working environments and greater flexibiliy.


Williams agreed that ‘agile working’ – first perceived as reducing office space requirement – was now revealing itself as enlightened


businessmag.co.uk Matthew Glock


Recently returned from a New York ‘WorkTech’ conference Stamatis highlighted the growing popularity of smaller corporate offices supported by the use of co-working spaces. “Companies take less corporate space and encourage their employees to use co- working community space – paid-for serviced environments where property is a retail experience, with refreshments and varied facilities from booths to meeting rooms.” This approach is being factored into property strategy for US corporates thinking of setting up in the UK, he added.


Wood revealed that fast-growing Fuze had followed the same property-use path when based in London, before it decided to occupy a dedicated head office space in well- connected, vibrant and much less expensive Reading. It also still uses co-working facilities in London.


Batho and Head remarked that co-working space was not a new property-use concept. Core-and-flex provision was around in the 1990s. The change today was in nature and style of use. London is a main financial centre,


Stephen Head


but now it is also the main European tech hub, growing faster than San Francisco, noted Batho.


Stamatis highlighted that major corporates are now starting to utilise co-working spaces in the same way that startups and SMEs might use them.


Head noted the workstyle change, with informality, collaboration and comfortable surroundings being crucial to the co-working experience. “We looked at Regus serviced offices but they were too ‘professional suit & tie’ for us, and the The Office Group in London who deliver a WeWork type environment promoting collaborative working and creativity suits us much better,” Wood mentioned.


Stamatis observed that the market valuation of the established Regus Offices organisation is around £2 biillion, while the WeWork valuation, just five years from formation, is about £10b. “It’s all about their workplace attractiveness, with businesses feeding off each other in a curated space.


“Where we work, where we live, and when we work is blurring, changing life dramatically. What is the meaning of work when it changes its nature physically as a space?”


Banker Sarah Dean highlighted workstyle change too. “At Handelsbanken we are very much more mobile. Ten years down the line, banking will be very different. In Sweden we already have a business model involving shared ‘meeting places’ that might be used occasionally to talk more conveniently with customers.


“As digitisation of banking becomes more popular, people won’t need to come into a branch space so often. I can envisage meeting places being out of town, for instance on a business park where parking is more convenient and traffic less of an issue for our customers, as well as the space being more cost-effective for the bank.


With customer relationships being important, bank branch offices would continue to provide face-to-face experiences and services, but less and different space might be required.


Batho: “Co-working is currently very strong in London, and growing in regional cities, but not yet in urban fringe business parks, although you will see co-working reflected as landlords, or third parties create onsite microcosms of it. Collaborative, agile and flexible working will extend over time as generation Y and Z hits the workplace.”


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY –JULY/AUGUST 2016


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