Buildings must be adaptable furniture also

Show NeoCon in Chicago in June, the Office furniture was all levels of the Merchandise Mart, the largest building in the city. Although manufacturers are competing luxury and design, their speech details always and now on all tertiary places world the importance of the comfort of the employee, proportional to its productivity in the Office. It is also the leitmotif of the promoters and planners of buildings. But it recently. Five years ago, most, in France, do not speak that savings of charges and reductions of surfaces by workstation.

Sustainable development is now the theme more than fashion and more subject to bail because it covers a different infinite field according to the. "The questions about the energy consumption of buildings appear among the five or ten questions we ask a user interested in one of our properties," explains Jean-Marc Pascard, Director of planning and development in Generali real estate. "There is a willingness to show an image of a responsible employer which has not yet affected all businesses, moderates Thierry Laborderie, Director of the users of DTZ. pole." Some, such as Veolia or gas of France, cannot escape, others do not at all concern. "Developers, supported by more specialized study offices, yet promise significant savings made by the design of facades double skin or equipped with triple pane Windows that open, wind planted on the roof of cold or natural ventilation systems beam ceilings... Cogedim example announces to CB31 defence tower a total electrical consumption of 100 kilowatt per hour per square metre per year against an average of 326 in tall buildings. Even the elevator pushing this field: more efficiency, less electricity. Otis proposes to entrust his badge the appeal of the cabin as soon as the entry in the tower where a voice will indicate the shortest path to reach his Office. The heat generated by the back and forth of the machines is re-injected in the circuit heating or electricity in the building. For the moment, the return on experience is small: 17 tertiary buildings in France are stamped high environmental quality (HQE). This label is granted a priori by the way are designed buildings, and therefore prior to delivery. "A posteriori and according to the behavior of tenants, consumption figures can vary from 20 to 30," said the head of an Office.

The lure of the "open space".

The effectiveness of the interior design of the offices is still more difficult to measure, if it doesn't gain square metres. But planners recognize after long defended the contrary, a good "open space" provides little economies of surfaces. "We observed a year a lift of shields on the part of employees against the tiring, noisy, spaces without intimacy, confirms Philippe Meurice, CEO of DEGW France. We are a little less openly asked to make savings and real comfort of employees seems to take on more importance in the eyes of managers. "The minimum of 6.5 m2 per workstation practiced at Accenture or Crédit Lyonnais a few years ago, the standard goes back to 8.5. Including meetings spaces and spaces in each floor, each employee "has" 15 m2. The figure to climb 20 m2 taking into account the building integer, company restaurant, lobby, including auditorium.... "The"open space"must now be punctuated by closed workspaces, meeting rooms, informal spaces which meet to discuss." These rooms or these rooms must be accessible and located within 10 metres of the workstations if they are not used. "When poorly thought, the economy of place is counterproductive, users begin to understand" adds Raphaëlle Garrigoux, architect and project manager at AOS Studley. These areas of common work mobilizing projects teams, for a week or a year, in which the hierarchy is apparently erased. "The trappings of power framework no longer in the number of frames of his Office or his closed door, rather in the model of his telephone or in its own way of managing the time, continued Philippe Meurice. It is similarly not mistake, the hierarchy has not disappeared.

The wave of the "hot desking" is is gradually erased. Workstations that employees reserve for a few hours or day work well with listeners or the absent Sales Office most of the time. "All occupations combined tertiary business, considering that the offices are occupied only 30 of the time", says Raphaëlle Garrigoux.

Constrained by the costs of real estate, businesses make choices. "It is common today that they leave Paris for new buildings in the suburbs." "The rent money spend in the comfort," confirms Thierry Laborderie. The advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi has sold its historic Headquarters on the island of la Jatte in Neuilly and moved to Saint-Denis for a reasonable fee of 300 euros per square metre per year included charges. The agency once organized in large closed offices now spans two plateaus of 2.000 m2 divided in "collaborative" and in workstations of 9.5 m2.

Less noise, more light

These attentions towards employees are not all visible: the quality of light, air and the level of decibels are also taken into account by management companies and the industrial working on more sophisticated systems. Prototypes with voice recognition and holographic keyboard offices already exist in the laboratories. 100 Avenue des Champs-Elysées is the first building tertiary fully equipped light-emitting diodes (leds), whose discreet lighting resembles that of natural light. The initial cost of this installation is two times more than a traditional solution. "However, the lifetime of LEDs (50,000 hours) allows to consider saving three or four maintenance interventions." "Generali, the owner and investor lessor, found that the cost was justified", explains Patrice Mirenowicz, responsible for the architectural approach at Philips Lighting France. At Vélizy-Villacoublay in the 60,000 m2 of new Head Office of Dassault Systèmes, the same manufacturer asked adaptable lighting only to variations in external light, to make it warmer in winter, colder and less dazzling in the summer.

Planners also meet the demands of flexibility. Buildings must be adaptable, furniture also. The "Sense" of furniture manufacturer Herman Miller range rises without nail or screw and hammer. "Furniture to standardize, the range is the same according to the hierarchy but can add an extension for the meeting, a table or a Chair in an Office without the need to involve a foreign company.". "Does make a lot of time and money", continues Raphaëlle Garrigoux. On trays, cables disappear in favour of the Wi - Fi. "Sometimes delicate because employees complain of headaches and fear for their health", is a developer. For the moment, strong currents continue to pass through cables, which requires to maintain false technical floors and does not considerably lighten the structure of the buildings.

Services to employees, considered gadgets there is little are growing, but not everywhere. The fitness room is a "must" in the building or just side while swimming pools, a time popular, have been abandoned, too expensive to construct and maintain for a very limited use. The Sundays seduce a clientele of paid executives. They cost the company and charge their services, for example pressing, more expensive than the traders of the district. Employees who use public transit return, their race or their costumes just passed by hand. Same observation nurseries, useful if have fixed working hours and do not impose on her baby three quarters of an hour morning and evening transportation.

These reflections are changing workspaces less quickly in France our neighbors. Planners and furniture manufacturers predict a revolution of behaviours. "The generation play-list who was born with the Internet, mobile phone, the Ipod... will change all our thinking patterns and must anticipate these changes, said Alain Froger, commercial Director of Herman Miller France.". These young people are accustomed to choose, they buy more disks, they have concoct them themselves. Same thing for what they watch, what they are listening, with podcasts... They behave in the same way with the work that they will find and offices. Do not expect nailing them to a table before a fixed computer. "Users are claiming evolutionary development that are not obsolete in 10 years. They dream!