Making Places is BNP Paribas Real Estate's Commercial Placemaking insights lab – seeking to create a new wave of creative, pragmatic cross-industry dialogue between users, landlords, developers and sector specialists. Increasing complexity within the built environment means that original insight, collaboration and debate are absolutely essential.
This time round we’re talking about the places in which we work – ‘Beyond the Workplace’ will explore our changing relationship with the physical workplace, which will be key to understanding its role within dynamic mixed-use environments. Many of the shifts we have felt have the potential to permanently alter physical and virtual requirements for the workplace.
Escaping banal conversation points around which days we plan to go into the office or how a slow internet connection disrupts a Teams calls is essential for avoiding short term thinking around the topic. Unless we plan on creating a Black Mirror’esq reality, living through screens in our own homes, we are going to require physical places that amaze and stimulate our imagination.
Within this magazine, we have brought together a raft of experts who offer an insights led approach which is essential to create meaning around the concept of ‘place’ and understanding the interrelationships between every facet of the urban environment.
NICK ROBINSON COMMERCIAL PLACEMAKING
+44 7557 288 213
HARVEY JAMES CENTRAL LONDON LEASING
+44 7469 403 964
Where we choose to work and live will determine the future of our cities. We’ve already seen the rhythms of cities change monumentally. No longer do the suburbs empty in the morning and fill up again at night. Indeed, many people chose to move out of cities in 2020, seeking larger houses and more outdoor space to escape the monotony of lockdowns and restrictions.
Counter-urbanisation is nothing new. We’ve seen it before across Europe and North America between the 1960’s and 1980’s as people left cities to improve their quality of life. Indeed it’s also not the first time that it’s happened as a result of a shock event. Following 9-11, New Yorkers left Manhattan for the suburbs, but quickly returned when the perceived threat of terrorism reduced. Similarly, following the 2011 Sovereign Debt Crisis and resulting economic depression in Greece, there was an exodus of people from Athens, yet people returned when jobs and prosperity returned.
The ability of cities to change and react rapidly in the face of these events means that they will remain culturally and socially significant in the long term.
So where does that leave the future of work? 2020 will be looked back upon as a pivotal moment for workplace culture. Aside from the obvious changes we have experienced, longer term issues, such as diversity, sustainability, autonomy and mobility to name a few, have all rightly come to the forefront of discussion.
Why we believed for so long that the workplace was immune to an increasingly virtual world is unclear. With so much of our work being online, there is a question mark over the established concept of travelling for hours each day to a purpose built office building, to use technology which is available in your own home. We must create a narrative within the workplace which is above and beyond the functional. There are obvious comparisons to be made against the retail sector. Whilst retail's rude technological awakening a decade ago triggered the demise of many treasured but antiquated retailers, we have subsequently seen the rise of increasingly creative and innovative brands. Could we see a similar phenomenon within the workplace? Could this shock nudge companies into setting up their operations towards being more innovative, proactive and collaborative?
The real estate implications for the future are striking and numerous, but we will have to wait for the post vaccine society to gauge how the new patterns of work play out. It has been a year where focussing on the negative has been easy, but there will certainly be positive consequences that emerge for both consumers and businesses alike. Wellness within the workplace is regularly discussed but remains a fairly nebulous concept. However, our time at home has in several ways made the concept more clandestine, reducing stressful commutes and allowing more time to be spent with our families. An objectively healthier workforce can only be a good thing for companies and the broader economy.
There is no denying that this remains a worrying time for landlords of office portfolios. However, as was the case before, well-located stock in vibrant or well-connected locations will continue to attract the right occupiers. A retraction in demand for space could see peripheral space becoming increasingly obsolete, but this in turn could create significant opportunity for repurposing and value creation.
Most importantly, if the long lasting effect of the virus on workplace culture is a healthier work life balance alongside greater trust and autonomy between bosses and workers, then these will be positive outcomes. The Austrian economist, Joseph Schumpeter, described modern capitalism as “the perennial gale of creative destruction”. The idea that something old must be destroyed for something new to evolve. For better or worse, 2020 was a year of creative destruction for workplaces around the world. Hopefully, 2021 and beyond will start to provide a little more certainty when it comes to our ways of working and make it a healthier, more inclusive and innovative environment for everyone.