At a recent UK Property Professionals event, leading architect David Back presented insight into the commercial space of tomorrow’s working world.

Mark Antscherl kicking off the event

Last week, the UK Property Professionals held an Expert Forum event at the Artillery Offices, where David Back, Managing Director of Artillery presented his predictions for the future of the workplace to the audience, including the main factors that are fuelling change in commercial office development.

Communication, lifestyle and economy were three key points that have prompted the changes in office development, suggested by David, including that work is increasingly saturated in the qualitative area.

“The offices are definitely changing,” David said, adding that there is much more involvement in the qualitative area of commercial office space.

David explained that this involves “the emotional, softer skills of your workplace,” a relatively new area being explored.

David Back presenting his predictions for the future workplace

David said that some of the new questions involved in creating new commercial offices include: “How important is your brand? How does your IT work? What is your environmental position as a company?” adding that staff welfare facilities are also questioned in order to attract top quality staff.

“There are lots of skills within the construction industry that fill that market,” David added, stating that he personally believes that in the future, more time will be involved in making sure the brief is correct in the first place, more than it ever used to be.

A member of the audience at the event also highlighted how future offices will be increasingly seen as a ‘destination’ rather than an office space, in order to build up awareness of the brand. This is due to the new generation seeing offices as a place to collaborate ideas - not just to sit at a desk.

“I really do think that the office of the future has changed an awful lot. I think that there is more of an emphasis for architects to invest time thinking about the link between the softer skills…than [the logistics] of how something is built,” he concluded.