Design

How purpose-led workplaces can help navigate today’s office challenges

From underused offices to employee frustration, the answer lies in creating intentional, purpose-driven workplaces that truly support people

Power of the pattern: a stressful view or a feelgood factor?

New research from the University of Cambridge suggests that repetitive patterns on building façades are raising our stress levels. But some patterns and shapes achieve the opposite effect

The big debate: will building standardisation stifle local creativity?

New hospital building programmes are today at the centre of a tense battle between standardisation and deregulation. Will workplace design fall into the same trap?

Shapeshifter offices: what happens when our spaces start to feel us back?

From mood-sensitive materials to neuroadaptive lighting, workplaces are beginning to adapt not just to tasks – but to emotions, postures and personalities

How biophilia supports wellbeing in virtual reality environments too

The restorative power of biophilic design has long been evidenced in the academic world and implemented in the professional one. New research suggests it works equally well in VR

Thinking space: three innovative uses of AI in the built environment

From recovering rubble to reading a city’s mood, these AI use cases suggest a new kind of built environment that can listen and understand us in real time 

Tomorrow’s Office: designing for constant change and adaptation

Adaptive, circular, healthy, hybrid and social office models advance the idea of space as a dynamic system in a new report that anticipates what’s next in workplace interiors

Factory settings: why is the post-industrial workplace so popular?

Creative firms relocating to industrial heritage buildings is on the rise. Research from the Netherlands suggests that connections to the past provide workers with motivation and identity