Normally, I am not one to speculate on the future of the office. Too many self-acclaimed futurologists announce workplace trends in regular intervals, often with little scientific underpinning. When someone would have asked me in the past to comment on the future of the office, my standard reply would have been, sorry, my crystal ball…
brainybirdz are sometimes commissioned to write articles and blogs for other organisations. This is a re-post of a blog written for Milliken earlier this month, where we argue for a different approach towards campus design. In our last blog post we discussed lecture theatres and the need to rethink the spatial design of campuses to…
brainybirdz are sometimes commissioned to write articles and blogs for other organisations. This is a re-post of a blog written for Milliken earlier this month, where we argue for a different approach towards campus design. A university campus is not just a workplace for academic and professional services staff, but also the daily ‘workplace’ for…
It is three months now that offices in the UK have been closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and we are slowly reaching the stage where lockdown restrictions are being eased and organisations are pondering and planning their return to the office. Throughout the past weeks, we have blogged about various Covid-19 related issues and…
POE is a form of building evaluation that assesses the performance of a building in use, or ‘post’ occupancy, that means whenever planning, design and construction phases are completed and users have begun occupying the building. The recent publication of a new POE guide (by Interface, Oliver Heath and BRE) prompted me to reflect on…
I am sitting in the new SamsungKX space as I’m writing this, wanting to find out what kind of place this is and whether I can use it as my (temporary) workplace. Not a shop! That’s the loudest and clearest message I’m getting as I approach from Kings Cross station, where adverts for SamsungKX are…
brainybirdz are sometimes commissioned to write articles and blogs for other organisations. This is a re-post of a blog written for Open Sensors earlier this month, where we dig into existing scholarly research studies to understand whether Activity Based Working actually works. Designing an activity based workspace is increasingly becoming the desired aspiration as a…
Sight is one of our most important senses. As humans we navigate the world based on what we see. This is why the experience of visibility – what you can see, who you can see and how easy it is for you to see others is of crucial importance in workplace design. But how could…
When it comes to moths, the scientific evidence is very clear: moths are attracted to light and tend to fly towards a source of light (such as the moon), especially when in danger. But what about humans and their relationship with light – specifically, their attraction to daylight? Intuitively, most of us would agree that…
If we ask you ‘what is the function of a building?’, your answer might well include ‘to give shelter’, or ‘to provide space for certain activities’. Indeed you might well say it depends on the type of building; a factory is there to manufacture products, a school allows children to learn. And of course you’d…
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