Workers are increasingly expected to return to the office, but their bosses aren’t following suit, leading to frustration among employees.

In recent months, for the first time ever, architectural firms are making more income from renovation work than new construction, said American Institute of Architects Chief Economist Kermit Baker, who expects the run on retrofitting to be more than a late pandemic blip.

It is being driven in part by an “onslaught” of building renovations happening right now, according to CBRE Global Head of Occupier Thought Leadership Julie Whelan. Landlords, in a moment of record-high vacancy and looking to differentiate their properties for future tenants, are spending vast sums on major upgrades.

Leaders must fully commit to a hybrid and remote working strategy to make it a success. If the direction of travel is clear, what’s the point of having a rear-view mirror? Leaders must fully commit to a hybrid and remote working strategy to make it a success. And while a slight detour might be required here and there, dedication to the long haul will accelerate change – not least because it will inspire employees.

Facilities managers face the challenge of proving their worth in organisations that tend to notice them only when things go wrong, not right.

You may need to alter the floor plan in the future but, for now, think about how you can best make use of the current space you pay good money for each month.

Depending on your business, your job and your living situation, the pandemic showed that many workers didn’t need to be sitting in a cubby farm inside a big building to get their jobs done.

The slow reopening of workplaces has proven divisive. Some employees have relished the opportunity to escape the confines of their home and to work alongside fellow humans once again. For others, the news foreshadows a dreaded return of the office 9-5 and all of its irritating minutiae.

Whatever your sentiments are on the remote work vs office debate, it appears as though workers aren't rushing to get back to their desks. According to an analysis of data by workspace booking platform Robin, US employees worked from the office an average of just 4.9 days per month in Q1 2022, with office capacity sitting at just 25% percent.

That's a lot of empty desks. But these figures don't tell the whole story.

Even as Apple, Google, Microsoft and other large firms are moving towards variations on the three-day week at the office, Airbnb's chief, Brian Chesky, reckons that model is unrealistic in the long term.

Airbnb last month outlined its vision for the future of work for the 6,000 employees at the vacation home rental platform: staff can choose to work remotely or in the office, they won't be subject to location-based salaries, and they will have regular off-site and team gatherings.

 

Chesky told Time in an interview that "the office as we know it, is over." The office was a pre-digital relic for anyone whose job is carried out on a laptop he says, which means the office, "has to do something a home can't do".

WeWork’s $435M net loss last quarter was down significantly from its $2B loss in Q1 2021.

Flex space operator Industrious announced two acquisitions in a $100 million deal, which add about 1 million sq. ft. of current and pipeline locations in Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, France, Belgium, and The Netherlands.

One of the two acquisitions is Singapore-based The Great Room, which has been operating since 2016 as a “hospitality-led premium coworking space operator.” It offers larger allocations of space for fast-growing companies or hot-desking environments for entrepreneurs.

In what may be a cause-and-effect of the increasing adoption of hybrid work and flexible office use as the pandemic winds down, the availability of sublease office space increased in Q1 2022 at the same time that demand for sublease space was greater than it has been during a first quarter in six years.

According to a new report from CBRE, sublease availability increased by 3.6% in Q1 while the leasing of sublease space rose 60% YOY during the same period.

During the second half of 2021, sublease space nationally fell by 5.4% as some occupiers took advantage of economical pricing, CBRE said.

Sublease space is on the rise again, leases are expiring at historic rates and not enough sales have happened to gauge how much office buildings are worth now.

Sublease space is on the rise in Chicago’s downtown office market as Edelman and Here Technologies downsize their footprints.

The 2022 trade show season brings a new beginning for award-winning building materials innovator, 3form. This year the brand is thinking outside the box with a fresh, multifaceted approach to the traditional showroom experience that increases accessibility to customers regardless of where they live, work, and travel. 3form’s bold new strategy embraces the increasing need for digital and physical experiences with a virtual showroom, a new online visualization and specification tool, and personalized experiences at their Utah headquarters.

“We made a decision to consider the way our customers are working in 2022 and beyond,” says Karli Slocum, Vice President of Marketing. “A designer’s time is tighter than ever—we want to personalize the approach so their brand experience can be fun, and also efficiently address their project goals in the process.”

 

This year, 3form will introduce a new virtual showroom experience, immersing designers into the world of 3form and highlighting the company’s materials and capabilities, including award-winning products from 3form, 3form Elements and LightArt. It will provide numerous ways for designers to learn about each product and easily connect with the 3form team to solve their unique design challenges on the spot.

Remote workers no longer tethered to an office are settling in mid-sized cities across the nation, creating new opportunities and headaches for real estate developers and the cities themselves. More than 12 percent of moves between April 2020 and December 2021 were caused by COVID-19, as remote workers have flocked to smaller cities with lower costs of living, lower taxes, and fewer pandemic health restrictions, according to a recent study by professors at Vanderbilt University and the Georgia Institute of Technology.