Article archive

The Breakout Zone
The term 'breakout zone' has become a common everyday phrase - breakout areas are now seen as a standard part of modern workplace design

Workstyles and the Greener Workplace
Green issues are now a core consideration in business strategy and operations. Most companies try to 'think green' across every aspect of their operations

Intangible Assets and the Workplace
Research shows that over the last 30 years there has been a dramatic shift in most industry sectors in the drivers of corporate value

The Flexible Workplace: A case for change
Today's recessionary times plan an emphasis in workplace strategy on reducing operating costs. It is possible, however, that this almost 'reactionary' mode of behavious could misfire

Global Best Practise - Workplace Design
At Herman Miller we are constantly asking ourselve what constitutes good design and how physical solutions can be sought to achieve strategic business challenges

Talking buildings
If a building could talk, of what would it speak? The answer is that buildings do talk - they communicate very effectively, but how?

Productivity at work
Much of the work undertaken by property professionals revolves around the need to reduce or manage costs.

Social Capital
For years, residential developers have sought to foster Social Capital in the built environments they create

The Third Space
Designers and Real Estate teams have become more inventive in using the 'Third Space' to offer a better variety of workspaces.

Strategy and the workplace
Workplace Strategy should be an important part of the execution of overall corporate strategy.

Creativity at Work
Ideas, original thinking, small improvements and big innovations are all essential to the success of businesses today. But how do people actually go about being creative?

Guiding Principles for Effective Workplace Change Engagement
When a decision is made to refurbish or relocate there are a plethora of decisions and actions to be dealt with relating to financing, leasing, design and construction.

Village Green: Driving Employee Productivity Through Workplace Change
The majority of employees from Herman Miller's Bath office relocated to a brand new building in Chippenham in January 2006 called VillageGreen.

How and where will we work in 2030?
Read the output from our recent Future of Work project, commissioned by the DTI. This scenario based research analyses how and where we might work in 2030, including the implications for business strategy and workplace design.

Inclusive Workplace Design for the Older Worker
As the workforce ages, companies facing the problem of leveraging knowledge from their most experience employeers should switch focus to a new design solution.

Offices are for Administration, BDP is About Creativity
This article describes how BDP used their office move to powerfully reflect a commitment to sustainability and reinvigoration through the new working environment.

Making Space for Big Ideas
The right working environment can evoke a creative state of mind and innovative thinking but does this require a change of approach to creative space design?

The New Office Landscape
A new office landscape is emerging - one which supports the more complex and social way in which we choose to work.

Searching for the Right Balance
the growing demand from employees for improved

Knowledge Management - An Integrated Approach
In a successful knowledge-based company the knowledge management strategy should not only reach far beyond explicit knowledge transfer and storage, but be invisibly embedded into organisational process and culture.

The Challenge of Providing Flexible Capacity
Capacity utilisation is a major headache for facilities managers but, given forward planning, there are many solutions to help companies avoid resorting to costly and often unnecessary long-term lease alterations.

An Office Layout for the Demanding Workforce
Company structures and practices change regularly, but we rarely reassess the needs of the workforce so we can adapt accordingly - one process for doing so is outlined here.

A Demand Driven Approach to Office Lighting Design
An office is not a uniform space where every employee performs the same task and has the same needs. So no company should find it acceptable to provide a single, uniform lighting scheme.

Light, Health and the Evolution of an Indoor Workforce
The average office has a brightness equivalent to an overcast winter's day - overlooking good lighting has negative consequences for both employee health and business performance.

Daylight in the Office - A Matter of Balance
It's easy to assume that more daylight and less artificial light is always a good thing - however, workplace design (both inside and out) must strike the right balance between the two.

Designing a Productive Space Configuration
A linear seating formation may have been perfect for the industrial factory line, but today's knowledge workers need more creative, interactive configurations to be productive.

The Workplace as a Strategic Priority
Leading companies are seeking ways to integrate workplace design with their overall strategic imperatives - this research explores the methods they are using to do so.

Property Strategies in Practice
This output document from a WIU forum, outlines 10 key learnings about the practical application of workplace strategies, drawing on our guests' real-life experiences.

Using Colour in the Workplace
Colour in the workplace can have numerous effects, impacting employees' psychological state, the perception of brand, the light levels in a space.

Storage - the Forgotten Trap
Our attachment to paper is not dwindling and so neither is the challenge of workplace storage. It seems such an obvious facility that often sufficient planning is overlooked and solutions are inadequate.