Less square footage drives team collaboration

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/realestate/commercial/19space.html

As employees become more mobile and less tied to their desks, the average amount of space per employee nationwide, in all industries, has dropped to 250 square feet from 400 square feet in 1985, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, a commercial brokerage and property manager. Within 10 years, that is expected to drop further, to 150 square feet.
“The office status symbol seems not to be as important. People are living for more flexibility in their lives,” said Peter Miscovich, a managing director for corporate solutions at Jones Lang LaSalle.

SEÁN MULRYAN has become the latest of Ireland’s big property developers to reach agreement with the National Asset Management Agency on a business plan for his large portfolio of debt-laden property assets.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0511/1224296698303.html

The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) is a body created by the Government of Ireland in late 2009. It is in response to the Irish financial crisis and the deflation of the Irish property bubble.  NAMA works out of the Treasury Building in Dublin which features Aspiration - a woman scaling the wall symbolizing the struggle for freedom that took place on the site in 1916.

Gherkin architect declares end of London skyscraper boom

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/apr/20/gherkin-architect-london-skyscraper

Tall buildings cost more to build than low-rise structures with the same amount of space, prompting some developers to go for smaller projects. At the same time, many tenants are reluctant to pay a premium for being in a tower as belt-tightening continues.
Property tycoon Gerald Ronson recently admitted that it will take about 18 months to let all the space in his Heron Tower, with the lower floors going for about £55 a sq ft while the top floors will command more. Rents in the City today are around the same level as in the 1980s.
The towers now under construction in the City were largely conceived before the financial crisis took hold, with developers obtaining planning permission before the credit crunch. The projects were then mothballed due to a lack of finance.

Office by Christian Pottgiesser

http://www.contemporist.com/2011/02/18/pons-huot-office-by-christian-pottgiesser/

The headquarters of two companies in Paris – PONS and HUOT.

The base for the construction was a rotten industrial hall built in the late 19th century with a steel framework typical for the period.

Each individual workplace is incised into the wooden upper surface and covered by a “telephone’-dome in Plexiglas. Neither entrance hall nor reception were implemented, since visitors are guided by a peripheral path-system leading to all pertinent rooms. The individual offices are situated on both galleries.