Offices

摘要

The Bankside eyrie that has been home to the RIBA Journal for the past few years is a smooth-skinned, cranked slab of a late 1980s office block, unexpectedly acclaimed as the shape of the future by none other than the late Martin Pawley when it was originally built on former railway sidings. These days, its main advantage is the grandstand view it provides of the City of London, with its forest of cranes sprouting from the credit-crunchy undergrowth. The floorspace continues to be churned out as the wheels set in motion in boom times continue to revolve. As ever, we shall be left with an oversupply, whereupon the wheels will cease to move for however long it takes for the market to turn up again. It's a silly sort of system, with buildings being regarded purely as investment vehicles and - as the wise Frank Duffy points out in this issue - virtually no feedback being obtained from users as to what kind of workplace they really want. There has always been a huge distinction between the bespoke office building, which tends to win awards (see the Carnegie offices in Dunfermline, page 40), and the speculative equivalent, which traditionally does not. You can have a spec office block which is any shape you like, with any cladding system you fancy within a given price range, and with a thunderingly wonderful reception desk, but inside - apart from the occasional chilled beam or exposed concrete soffit - it will be very little different from its 1980s forebears.