NSC 15
Jun 20
not be needed in future if resiliency can
be achieved by home working capabilities
proven during this pandemic.
Other trends could boost office demand.
Those companies that intend to revert to full
time office working for all or most staff as
soon as possible face challenges that might
mean they need more office space than
before, at least as long as social distancing
requirements stay in force. The trend
towards ‘densification’, where more and more
people are shoe-horned into less and less
space, is likely to have been reversed by the
pandemic.
Hot desking might be a thing of the past.
Even with staggered shifts the norm, there
could be long waits to use lifts - so more
lifts might be needed in future buildings.
Many of the staff leisure facilities that have
been provided by employers in sectors like
technology - ping pong tables and gyms for
example - could be redundant in a social
distancing age.
All the fears and worries could of course
evaporate if a vaccine or a range of effective
treatments are developed soon, but working
from home during lockdown has reportedly
given employers pause for thought about
how they use their office spaces, and how
much of it they need. Developers will
respond to that, no doubt with caution at
first while there is still a serious recession to
contend with, but later by asking designers
to come up with solutions appropriate to the
new working world.
Steel ideal for a social distancing world
Steel comes into its own against this sort of
background as it has proven adaptability
and future-proofing characteristics, which
can be seen in the completed steel-framed
commercial projects in the following pages.
This built in adaptability can significantly
extend the life of a building as uses change,
an obvious circular economy plus.
Social distancing products are becoming
available daily, all of which can easily be
installed in modern steel-framed buildings.
Open-plan spaces may be broken up with
easily installed perspex screens. Major
services are often integrated within the
depth of the floor zone, creating space where
additional ventilation can be provided to
buildings, as has been suggested might be
demanded in future.
New services might have to be designed
into new buildings or retrofitted; equipment
is already being installed in buildings
including thermal imaging screens to detect
anyone with an increased temperature.
The long spans that steel-framed buildings
are renowned for are easily adapted to suit
alternative, cellular layouts. Buildings that
have used integrated beam construction in
particular have total flexibility of layout as
the flat soffit means all internal walls can be
relocated or taken away, or additional walls
added.
And if, as we can still hope, a vaccine
is found for COVID-19 or it mutates into
something more benign, a steel-framed
building can easily be converted back to
what it was before, or adapted further to
changing uses.
A new focus on healthy workspaces
and the environment generally is a likely
outcome of the pandemic and steel scores
well on all relevant measures. Constructional
steelwork is fabricated in factory conditions
where social distancing and other measures
are easily supervised, and a steel-framed
building demands far fewer people on
site than alternatives. Sustainability, or
circular economy, benefits include steel’s low
embodied carbon, and a 100% recyclability
that no other construction material can
match.
Sector Focus
There is still a demand
for high-quality
office space as the
City of London's everincreasing
high-rise
cluster demonstrates
/Multi-storey_office_buildings#Flexibility_and_adaptability
/Braced_frames
/Steel_and_the_circular_economy
/Service_integration
/Fabrication
/Sustainability
/Life_cycle_assessment_and_embodied_carbon#What_is_embodied_carbon.3F
/Recycling_and_reuse#Recycling