bi3 Autumn/Winter 2020

design
design
The UK’s business
landscape has been
transformed almost beyond
recognition over the last six months.
One of the most visible changes is the
shift towards remote working with
Cloud-based software and modern
communications platforms like
Zoom and Teams enabling
millions of employees to
work from home.
While this new normal seems set to
continue for the foreseeable future
with many companies, including
Google, telling staff they can work from
home until the middle of next year, it
would be premature to suggest that
traditional office working is a thing of
the past.
home for reasons including financial
and health concerns, childcare and
work-life balance, many others are
“chomping at the bit” to get back into
the office.
However, after months of working from
home, the prospect of returning to an
office environment can feel daunting.
So the challenge for those tasked with
designing the offices of the future
will be to create spaces that not only
factor in the enhanced sanitation and
social distancing measures that have
become such an important part of our
working lives, but also elegantly bridge
the gap between home and office.
Most importantly you need to think
about how you actually live and what
you really want.
Senior Architect Murray Fleming
and Architectural Technologist
Lauren Livingston are working on
a number of exciting projects for both
public sector and private clients. We
ask them how they envisage design
both at work and home evolving in the
wake of the Covid-19 pandemic:
In fact, while many people have
seized the opportunity to work from
Covid
Covid
How
is changing the way we
design our homes & offices
What’s your own
preference, home or
office?
Both! Flexible
MF working has always
been part of the set-up at
Bell Ingram Design with
colleagues splitting their
time between our offices and
working remotely, either at
home or on-site. We make
full use Microsoft Teams
which allows our team of
architects, technologists,
planners and surveyors to
work collaboratively and share
ideas across a huge range of
projects.
I think working
LL between office and
home offers the best of both
worlds. The peace and quiet of
the home environment allows
you to be super productive
without distractions, while
the office environment is
vital for bouncing ideas
off your colleagues. Teams
and Zoom are fantastic,
but nothing beats face-toface
communication and
interaction with colleagues
and clients. This is particularly
important for recent graduates
who need real time feedback
and guidance from managers
and senior members of staff if
they are to learn and progress.
How will Covid
change the way
we work?
There’s a lot of
MFdiscussion around
the impact of office layout
and safe spacing on the
spread of Covid-19. Before
the pandemic, traditional
office layouts had staff sitting
at desks directly facing one
another. These days that’s
bad news for obvious reasons
because no-one wants
someone breathing over
them all day long, and vice
versa. The kneejerk reaction
is to put up Perspex screens
everywhere but there are
other equally effective and
more elegant solutions that
are well worth consideration.
Clients are looking
LL for smart working
solutions, particularly hot
desking, to give them the
flexibility to expand without
adding more workstations.
Wireless devices, laptops and
mobile phones allow staff to
choose a free desk, sit down
and plug in. Then it’s just a
matter of clearing your desk
at the end of the day and not
using anyone else’s keyboard.
How is Covid
changing the way you
design office space?
I am currently
MF working with a public
sector organisation who are
in the process of relocating its
headquarters from traditional
offices to a new building with
a modern, hot desking set-up.
Space planning is extremely
important to this client as
staff must feel safe returning
to an office environment.
Perspex screens are the
obvious way to ensure safe
distancing, but I want to
create a workspace that’s
visually interesting and
increases wellbeing rather
than just building more boxes
to work in. To achieve this,
I’m making extensive use of
plants throughout the office
space to produce the physical
distance required between
workstations. As well as being
extremely effective, they look
beautiful, cleanse the air and
are great for wellbeing.
I am also looking at innovative
ways to construct safer shared
spaces. For example, do you
really need to have a door?
And if you do need a door,
does it need a handle or
could it be an electronic, or
foot operated instead?
Covid has made
LL everyone more
aware and cautious of the
surrounding environment.
People want spaces that
are easy to manoeuvre and
that minimise unnecessary
contact. Once we have spoken
to our client and have a
greater understanding of the
spaces they require and how
they work we can design a
bespoke layout that works for
their employees and visitors.
At Bell Ingram Design we
have the in-house knowledge
and expertise to produce
high quality 3D visualisations
which bring our plans to life
helping our clients visualise
the space.
How will the home
working trend affect
house design?
If you work from
MF home you need a
dedicated office space …
there’s only so long you can
work from the kitchen table!
However, with developers
typically building smaller and
smaller houses to maximise
their profits, your new home
is much more likely to have
three bathrooms than a
home office. This is because
they build for the “average”
customer and research tells
them that most people want
an en-suite bathroom as well
as a family bathroom and
separate wc.
None of us are average, yet
there’s a tendency to accept
how houses are without
giving it a great deal of
thought. But they can be
all sorts of things and you
don’t have to live with the
rooms that we take for
granted - here’s a box, that’s
the kitchen, here’s another
box, that’s the living room.
Houses can be so much more
exciting, but you need to
think about exactly how you
live and what you want.
The ideal solution is to build
your own home. Even when
you factor in the additional
cost of buying a plot of land
it’s a surprisingly affordable
solution, and you’ll typically
get much more outside space
than if you buy a home on a
new development.
With people spending
more time living
and working at
home how can we
create a healthier
environment?
A lot of materials
MF used in new build
developments are not very
good for our health. But if you
are building your own home
you are in control of all the
materials used and you can
make it as healthy as you want
and use products – even down
to the wiring – that don’t give
off nasty chemicals and gases.
It can be a little more
expensive to use chipboard
which is bonded with steam
rather than toxic glue, or
source a healthier paint, but in
terms of the overall budget it’s
a small extra cost. We can even
reduce the amount of plastic
used in a house build.
As Murray mentioned
LL earlier, it is not a
permanent solution working
from your kitchen table. It’s
important for our mental
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