BCO sets out advice for healthier offices – © 4 PM production-Shutterstock
The British Council for Offices (BCO) has released an update to its Guide to Specification advice on how to specify office space.
In a statement supporting the update, the BCO explained that the revision comes as a response to challenges emerging from the pandemic and what it describes as the accelerating need for the built environment to respond to climate change.
Recommendations include:
- A minimum space allocation of 10 square metres of space per person as the occupancy density design standard for general workspace
- A minimum sustainability target of BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and 5 Star NABERS UK for new-builds
- Aspirational targets for operational and embodied carbon use to meet Net Zero Carbon goals
- Increased levels of outdoor air supply
- More efficient lighting installations
- Reduced power and cooling loads
- Higher performance façades
- More flexibility in the range of structural spans for office space
The guidance on space allowed for each employee when designing a speculative office building, now 10m2 per person, “provides greater scope for the variety of workplace settings needed to support hybrid working”. It also, the BCO states, “avoids overdesign of core services, improves floorplate efficiencies, and minimises carbon emissions”.
As for reduced power and cooling loads, the BCO says that greater use of low-powered tablets, laptops, and smartphones, as well as the growth in cloud computing, has allowed a reduction in small power load allowances 100 W to 60 W per person – reducing the heat generated in the office space, in turn reducing the cooling needed.
Reflecting rapid progress in the adoption of more demanding sustainability targets, the Guide to Specification is moving its minimum BREEAM target rating from ‘Very Good’ to ‘Excellent’, also introducing the latest building certification standard, NABERS UK – an energy-performance rating relying on measured energy use.
The 2023 update to the guide aids the future adoption of alternative structural materials such as timber by adding smaller 6.0 and 7.5m spans to the recommended range, providing designers with more options to minimise the embodied carbon of the structure.
Richard Kauntze, BCO chief executive, said that the 2023 Guide to Specification update “will drive the decarbonisation of the office sector, enacting change to help the industry deliver on the UK’s net zero by 2050 target. This new guidance for the highest-quality offices introduces more generous space standards and greater design flexibility to support wellbeing and sustainability as the office sector adapts to the world of hybrid work.”
The BCO Guide to Specification update has been developed in consultation with experts from across the industry, including agents, investors, occupiers, and developers.
