Welcome to our new article series where we look into new styles of urban live, work and play scenarios.
This week we look at ways of enhancing your life at work by expanding your life at home. The office pod is an affordable and eco-conscious solution to the narrowing office supply and can offer a spatial alternative to an increasing population of young professionals ‘Speculators’ and professionals with families ‘Providers’.
Our search for providing spatial solutions to those with little access to capital, is driven by an architecture that is both
creative and logical, driven by the notion that architects can do more to solve the ensuing issues within the built environment today. In this issue we look at the benefits of adapting the home for the speculator and the provider to make creative positive change for life at work.
We say don’t forget to utilise the space you already have. Manchester’s economy is estimated to have grown by 2.9% during 2016, an impressive performance given the result of the EU referendum and surpassing the UK average of 1.8%.
Grade A rents have remained steady over the last 12 months at circa £34 per sq.ft whilst rental pressure continues to develop on good quality refurbished space across the city. Manchester’s forthcoming development boom has led to a series of new planning proposals for office space within the city centre, the affordability however is unwelcoming. Grade A availability for 2017 is around 500,000 sqft, yet the city is once again starting to look under- supplied in office space.
There is only 18-month’s worth of available stock based on the five- year average take-up and the financial burden of acquiring office space that will suit the needs of your business becomes an arduous task, so what are the alternatives?
The concept of working from home was deemed too futuristic 20 years ago but with the inter connectivity of most businesses to its employees, its possibility as a new style of working is very achievable. Particularly for our actor the provider we see the benefits for workers with families as a solution for employee retention, as home working can help retain working parents with childcare responsibilities as well as removing the stressful and financial contributions of commuting which can lead to greater productivity due to fewer interruptions in the office. This can also include sick days where we simply become obsolete because we no longer have access to the facilities at the office.
If you’re speculating on creating a business or following an entrepreneurial adventure or even just need a space to be creative, a space at home can really help avoid those initial start-up costs from escalating. Recently I walked past the demolition of Rogue Studio’s which housed the largest series of artists’ studios in Manchester, the artists who have relocated to Salford in an undesired location now face an uncertain future. The artists are typically very resilient and able to adapt to most spaces, but rarely can they acquire a space that is customised to their own artistic endeavour. The most recent office developments in Manchester reflect a prescribed office space and though efforts are made to create variety this differs little from the 1980’s style of back to back office cubicles with a prescription for one desk, one chair and one filing cabinet.
The average cost of zed office spaces per sqft is set to rise by the end of 2017 with Arbuthnot Latham (private banking firm) recently paying £32.50 per sqft for their new 4,078sq.ft of office space on 82 King Street. Whilst the city has opened the flood gates to development the quality of these spaces becomes crucial with typical retail and businesses competing for office space near the city centre, this is the basis of a geographical economic theory from the 1960’s known as Bid rent Curve theory that states that business convenience aligns with accessibility or your ability to reach clients physically. Time to adapt guys! With so many individuals now seeking to create their own enterprises how can the office supply accommodate this wide variety of entrepreneurial needs. In this day and age we can now rely on online connectivity to not only go about our day to day but to branch out to talent pools that we previously wouldn’t have had access to. As a start-up we have experienced first-hand the difficulties of acquiring a space where we can manage our day to day activities, the city simply cannot provide this in batch let alone on a mass scale, especially not when the top priority is for ‘commercial viability’.
Our final words of advice for this article is
don’t forget about your current spaces at home, the office space provided by most developers surmounts to a generic interpretation of basic work life based on a prescribed office space that neither inspires nor is particularly flexible. We believe that people should have a greater choice in spaces to work that accommodates the needs of the speculator or the provider.
If you would like to talk about any of the issues raised or are in need of a spatial solution to enhance your life at home, work or play please feel free to get in contact with us! 
