Description

With office work being rendered more flexible, both spatially and temporally, and with the new opportunities for the global organisation of teamwork without regard to temporal and geographic constraints, the demand for space – and even more, the demands occupants make on office buildings – are changing. The marketplace is increasingly dominated by site and surface area concepts designed to optimise flexibility and duration of occupancy as much as possible. The actual location – which was the crucial factor until now – is relinquishing pride of place to information technology, which, if it doesn’t devalue the advantage of a central location, at least relativises it. The periphery is gaining in attractiveness, and even overtaking the centre according to some locality criteria.

The accelerated change in occupants’ requirements also means that the realistic amortisation periods for office property are also becoming shorter. Often buildings that are a mere twenty years old have to be refurbished in order to make any headway in the market. Investment in the renovation and modernisation of building services and in extensions can amount to as much as two thirds of the cost of a new building. If office buildings are to be amortised in less than twenty years, then either the cost of land and construction have to go down, or rents have to go up.

Development of supply

The growing flexibility of business and the work world (e-commerce, telework) presents the greatest challenge that has arisen since the introduction of computers. More freedom in the choice of site, caused among other things by the Internet, workflow and telecommuters, relativise the shortage of space that has plagued the market until now. However, the proportion of conventional office space will not see much growth; instead the demand for flexible space suited to conventional office forms that can also be used for highly condensed non-territorial office concepts and business clubs will increase. Flexibility has to allow multiple changes in occupancy in the life cycle of an office building at reasonable cost.

Although mobile work requires an appropriate organisational set-up, it does not require a particular office form. However, both conventional cell-like offices and open-plan layouts make the introduction of mobile working more difficult. Cell-like offices have little architectural flexibility and are not very economical in terms of area from a structural point of view. They also require territorial thinking, hierarchical ownership and policies of separation; in consequence, the opposite of organisational maxims in keeping with the times – transparency, social encounter appeal and team spirit. Although typical open-plan offices provide sufficient flexibility and openness, because of their one-sidedness in spatial terms and the disruptive effect of their acoustics, they are ideal neither for concentrated work nor for communication. Combination offices offer a good starting point for the introduction of mobile work, because they combine the advantages of cell-like offices and open-plan offices while avoiding their disadvantages for the most part. In addition ­their décor facilitates the eventual introduction of business clubs. These latter fulfil future requirements by offering a variety of task scenarios that take account of different occupational models: depending on the designated responsibilities and personal work style; they are suitable for individual and team work both by employees who work on-site all the time and those who are only present from time to time.

The organisational goal is to endow every occupational function with optimum supporting conditions. In order to do this, synergy and the meeting of minds must be fostered. Expensive resources such as office space and office infrastructure have to be better exploited and made to function as a system. They have to weather cyclical trends in such a way that capacity does not have to be continually built up and cut down. The present distribution of office concepts in Europe – with a large proportion of cell-like offices, the diminishing demand for open-plan offices and the small proportion of combination offices and business clubs – shows that differentiation in demand has just begun. Office property as a product is just as much in the grip of transformation as the service sector and office work are.

Flexibility of occupancy

Office property today can and should be suitable for all the current occupancy requirements: cell-like and open-plan offices for conservative market segments, combination offices and business clubs for flexible enterprises. For this, building depth and façade patterns should allow for both double-row and triple-row occupancy variations. The office buildings approximately twelve metres deep that are currently so widespread in Europe do not meet these requirements; practically speaking, they can only be used as double-row layout with cell-like offices on either side. In the interests of flexibility of occupancy, a 13.5 metre clear usable plan depth is the minimum measurement guideline. At this, a double-row layout occupancy with cell-like offices is still economically efficient while at the same time, triple-row occupancy is still possible (workplaces at the façades, infrastructure in the interior zones). Building depth is limited by the threshold values for natural lighting and ventilation. At a room height of three metres, this allows at all events a 7.5 metre deep zone along the façades. The repeating façade unit width grid of 1.35 metres that is so widespread in Europe is generated by the double rooms for clerical work in cell-like offices. Dispensing with vast numbers of rows of office cells will enable more spacious, less rigid patterns.

In Massimiliano Fuksas’ Vienna Twin Towers, both the conventional office concepts and the flexible business clubs that point the way to the future can be realised. To increase its flexibility, the office space caters to a variety of target groups with tastes ranging from simple to luxurious. Unlike most project developments, this one offers for each office concept a thoughtfully conceived basic completion standard. Special requests are taken into account when a tenant opts for basic completion as cubicle offices or a business club layout. Although on one floor up to 1500 m² of office space is offered for rent, the floors can also be interconnected. It is for this reason that pop-out panels have been provided in the ceilings: they can be replaced by spiral staircases and later closed off again.

Site synergy

Proximity to (potential) customers and business partners is a significant site criterion and in fringe areas, this often remains to be achieved. However, the creation of a business community fosters synergies. For this purpose it is worthwhile identifying suitable target groups and acquiring a promising mixture of occupants. The Twin Towers were developed on the basis of a master plan that provides for mixed occupancy for Wienerberg City, a district on the outskirts of the city. The towers, which accommodate almost 30,000 workplaces on 60,000 m², also encompass 12,000 m² of retail floor space and an entertainment centre. To this will be added about 1300 rental apartments and owner-occupied apartments with corresponding infrastructure in the neighbourhood. The urban quality of the new site and its attractiveness for each and every occupant derives above all from the synergies between Wienerberg City’s various occupant groups. The 2300 parking spaces in the underground garage will be used by the office tenants, apartment occupants, customers and employees of the service facilities. The same synergy is enhanced not only by the fitness centre and the “food court” in the tower, but also by the childcare facilities and the space belonging to the neighbouring Volkshochschule, which provides adult education. The shuttle bus to the commuter train serves both customers of the retail shops and office tenants.

Infrastructure

Today, qualified employees are considered to be open to technical innovations and new services. With working hours becoming more flexible, the demand for flexible availability of infrastructure increases. An IT infrastructure with maximum bandwidth should be incorporated in the basic infrastructure of an office building. The integration of building IT and IT related to areas of responsibility has long been technically possible, and only in this way can it be sensibly used. What is more, it furthers the development of a building intranet. Wienerberg City has its own intranet that links neighbours and service providers, turning them into a virtual community, which enables better communication between tenants and can supply a marketplace for business and services and thereby a virtual synergy.

Services

Finally, the landlords of the Twin Towers supply tenants with a wide range of services that they can use before, during and after moving in. These services range from planning support for moving preparations to the supply of routine operational services. Facilities that can be used in common, event venues and high-tech facilities optimise business processes and promote tenants’ identification with the site. The Regus Group offers short-term tenancies of small amounts of space and thereby contributes to the flexibility of existing tenants and encourages potential tenants to establish themselves on the site.

It is also obvious that the bundling of the purchasing of goods and services for a single site will generate synergetic effects for the occupants. They can benefit from a small cost premium per square metre for office and telephone services without the overheads involved while still retaining flexibility. A selection of good restaurants is expected to foster informal communication between staff dispersed over different floors, departments and enterprises in the building. Social control of personal encounters and fostering the exchange of information between knowledge workers takes the place of time clocks (as the measure of diligence).

The property can and should support the organisational, spatial and temporal flexibility of the enterprise. In the past, added-value services were seldom offered, because they were not sought after. The Regus Group demonstrates how office space can be successfully marketed with full service. Following the “Regus principle,” at several sites, Siemens Real Estate is in the process of developing a full service concept for its own tenants and others. The basic equipment consists of non-territorial workplaces in individual offices, team offices and communication centres with double and triple occupancy and with broadband wiring, standardised PC and telephone equipment and technology for presentations etc. In addition, they also provide extensive services according to the motto “more freedom for your free time,” an internet market place for groceries, drugstore articles, flowers, theatre tickets, shopping, car maintenance, insurance and travel bookings, etc. The goods are paid for by credit card and delivered to the workplace, to lockers in the reception area or to the home, depending on buyers’ preferences.

At Siemens, all those involved benefit greatly. When staff are liberated “from the burdensome necessity of dealing with the daily tasks of everyday life immediately after office hours or shortly before the shops close, valuable time credit is won” which can be profitably used for the company, for families and for leisure-time activities. In addition, the enterprise gains an edge over the competition by being able to attract highly qualified workers.

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Originally published in: Rainer Hascher, Simone Jeska, Birgit Klauck, Office Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2002.