Developers, builders and planners need a new approach to construction alongside the new flexible working practices being adopted as we emerge from lockdown, with innovation at its heart, research from Harrison Clark Rickerbys has shown.
The research, and how the construction industry moves forward, will be addressed in a webinar on 22 April in partnership with industry body Herefordshire and Worcestershire Constructing Excellence (HAWCE).
With so many now used to working remotely, the need for working space within homes, as well as profound changes to where we need our offices and how we use them, is pressing. HCR’s Future Workspaces report delves into what this means for all those involved in building commercial or residential property.
Those with space to work at home, and especially properties with gardens, have found their homes are suddenly more desirable; these elements will need to be built in more comprehensively.
“Developers and architects will need to consider new working practices in the design phase”, says Keith Blizzard, HCR’s head of Construction and Engineering, “as there will be reduced density with any development to incorporate larger apartments with integrated or communal workspaces. Within city centres there will need to be more green space.”
“The challenge of existing housing stock is the energy efficiency of the buildings, which will need to be upgraded to meet the challenge of carbon reduction.”
The report also looks at the rise of rural office space; Oliver Workman from THP Chartered Surveyors told researchers: “If you have staff who are in and out of the office regularly, easy access and allocated parking are critical. For businesses that want personality but also the practicality, we’re seeing increasing interest in rural premises and converted farm buildings.”
Last year’s shakeup in planning uses will give businesses the flexibility they need to address these issues; the consolidation of a range of retail and business uses into a single planning class, enables easy changes of use, while new permitted development rules allow major change for office and light industrial spaces. This will affect town and city centres and more change may be needed to ensure they can recover post-pandemic.
You can register for the webinar here and find the Future Workspaces report here.
Harrison Clark Rickerbys has more than 550 staff and partners based at offices in Birmingham, Cambridge, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Hereford, London, Thames Valley, Worcester, and the Wye Valley, who provide a complete spectrum of legal services to both business and private clients, regionally and nationwide. The firm also has a number of highly specialist sector-specific teams, including technology, finance and financial services, defence, security and the forces, health and social care, education, agricultural and rural affairs, and construction.