How is office design changing to accommodate hybrid and new ways of working?

Dr Matthew Davis, Leeds University Business School, is joined by Professor Simon Rees, School of Civil Engineering, and Mike Burton, Director at AECOM. They talk about how developers and designers are making changes to offices for new ways of working. This includes: better ventilation, different technology for hybrid working, making the office more attractive for those used to working from home, and designing offices to be more accommodating for neurodiverse people. 

This project – Adapting Offices for the Future of Work – is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), as part of UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to Covid-19.  

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in January 2022. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.   

About the speakers: Dr Matthew Davis is an Associate Professor at Leeds University Business School, a Chartered Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. His research centres on how people interact with their environments, the impact of different office designs and how businesses engage in CSR, particularly to address sustainability and modern slavery.  

Simon Rees is Professor of Building Energy Systems at the University of Leeds. His research interests are in the field of Building Engineering Physics and geothermal heating and cooling systems. These interests can be summarised as sustainable building design, energy simulation and dynamic thermal modelling methods, room heat transfer, thermal networks and geothermal systems. 

Mike Burton is Director for AECOM Building Engineering and also Director of the British Council for Offices Board of Management, a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of CIBSE.  Mike has designed many award-winning international offices for both developers and occupiers and is currently leading the environmental design on a number of the next generation of sustainable, smart and healthy buildings. Mike has co-authored many key workplace publications including the 2019 RIBA Future Office book looking at trends in people, technology, procurement and materials, and published industry guidance documents on sustainable refurbishment, mothballing buildings and reopening the workplace.  Mike is currently a regional RIBA judge and national BCO judge, CIBSE Building Performance Engineer 2022 finalist, shortlisted for BCO NextGen Inspirational Leader of the Year 2020, and the 2021 winner of WICE Mentoring Awards.