Chairman of office group warns on development

ARE you sitting comfortably? In an ideal world, this is the question bosses would ask of their employees - unfortunately the reality for office-workers has proved to be somewhat different and balance sheets have suffered accordingly.

This was the starting point for a group of specialists, who came together in 1992 for the first conference of the British Council for Offices, to look at what makes offices work.

"Why do office buildings cost so much?" proved to be the catalyst for a pooling of expertise involving developers, architects, engineers and surveyors, who looked at all the factors which relate to offices.

Their research has led to a specification for urban offices, which is available from the BCO and which has led to a revision of design criteria away from simple development and geared more towards the occupier. The BCO chairman, Richard Saxon, believes this has led to a complete overhaul of building standards in Britain, resulting in major building expenditure cuts.

Lessons were learned in the process which could usefully be applied to development in Dublin. Crucial to good office design, he maintains, is an understanding of work practices and the way people live.

People should not arrive at work frazzled after driving along gridlocked highways, be subjected to the temperature extremes associated with air-conditioning, or be forced to spend most of their waking hours in faultily-lit offices adjacent to noisy or environmentally hazardous equipment.

These problems, he argues, are completely avoidable by making the most of resources which can be easily available if offices are built in the right location and in a way that maximises light and air.

Keeping office-workers comfortable is not as hard as it appears, says Mr Saxon. The ideal office should allow considerable freedom for personnel; simply put, they should be able to open windows, adjust light, and be free to move around from one technical facility to another.

But top of the agenda for Mr Saxon is not how the office is built, but where it is located. Out of town office-parks are detrimental to good urban planning because of the associated loss of vitality in cities and the resultant traffic chaos.

"If I ruled the city, I would say the transit system and offices have to be hooked-up together. No office should be more than five minutes from a transit stop," Mr Saxon says.

This was only his second visit to Dublin, where he was meeting staff at the Irish office of Building Design Partnership (BDP), the firm of architects which has been involved in a number of significant projects recently, including the new Fingal civic offices planned for Swords in north Co Dublin.

Mr Saxon is chairman of the British-based international BDP firm, which is celebrating 35 years in business this year.

Struck by the amount of change which has taken place in Dublin, Mr Saxon sounds a note of warning on future development saying "Dublin is facing disaster" if such development takes place in the suburbs.

"You'll have damaged your city, made your traffic worse and increased fuel consumption," he says, adding that the advantages of city development are obvious. "More people can get to their jobs, you stimulate urban life and get better shops and restaurants."

Contrary to popular opinion, he says offices do not sound the death knell for city life, quite the reverse with more people working shifts round-the-clock and using facilities such as gyms and cafes, which act as a dynamic for city life.

"There's a great deal more living in the office and as a result they're living in the city," says Mr Saxon.

Modern telecommunications have also revolutionised work practices, leading to greater mobility. IBM's headquarters near Heathrow is a good example. Receptionists stand at the entrance, employees from out of town aren't given a desk - they're given a "touchdown space", and if they don't want to be disturbed they get a room specifically designed to be telephone-free.

"Some of them, but not very many, have permanent workplaces.

This kind of mobility within the workplace leads to greater productivity, with people opting to spend more of their leisure time at or near the office, he says. This was the thinking behind the Scandinavian Airlines headquarters in Sweden which is designed as a city street and includes a theatre, cinema, as well as a range of shops at ground level. The chief executive plies his trade in the street rather than in his office where he makes a point of meeting employees in a seemingly casual manner.

"He lived like an idealised citizen of Athens by hanging-out in the forum." It's not clear whether these casual encounters led to inquiries about how comfortable the employees found their state-of-the-art office, but it is clear from the list of BCO corporate members that it is a question more and more bosses are beginning to ask.