Rachel Edward is Workplace Futures Lead at Lendlease, and if you're involved in workplace in London you'd be pushed to not be aware of her work. She's Rachel has been involved in a number of pioneering projects working on workplaces globally applying evidence-based design thinking. Rachel is all about how people use the places that we build. She is passionate about building sustainable workplace communities, with a focus on how the design of places can make a difference — to society, t...

Collin Burry has been with Gensler for nearly 27 years and is as passionate about design as the day he started, which comes across really well in our interview. Collin has built his career and standing by delivering the kind of projects many of us would give a right arm to be involved with (Apple, Pixar, Nike, Samsung, E. & J. Gallo Winery, Nokia... the list is endless) winning over 85 design awards for his work. Normally for a bio I cobble together bits I find on Linkedin and other sit...

Ivana Stanisic wowed me a while ago in a talk she did for PlaceLabs, the them was 'Belonging' her key message was the necessity of valuing personal agency. Ivana’s talk portrayed her belief of how a sense of agency is not only important to people on an immediate, individual level, but how it’s key to the longevity and success of buildings and communities. “We have these joyful places which are socially and visually a mess.” Ivana went on to explain, “That’s why people go there, not because ...

I read Happiness by Design by Ben Channon during Covid, packed with sensible suggestions, and a checklist of how our homes should function — after the success of the book, Ben expanded on the concept into a Happiness by Design Toolkit, his most recent book, which looks at a much broader field of architecture and design including workplace. As an architect, author, TEDx speaker and mental wellbeing advocate, he is well known in the industry as a thought leader in designing for happiness...

After a unique route into real estate; Chris worked in managing agent and client-side roles on many of the most exciting developments of the last 20 years. With a focus on putting customer experience and unifying place narrative at the centre of asset strategy; he's long banged the drum for how places need to work for people, in order to realise relevant and authentic experiences and outperform business plan objectives. Collaboration led to the creation of Cureoscity — a prop tech that...

I'm know Rosanna through the PlaceLabs event we founded together (soon to be rebooted, might I add!) and can comfortably say she's one of the smartest, most engaging and creatively curious people I know. — and I know a lot of smart, engaging, creatively curious people. From the Place Bureau website: "Rosanna Vitiello creates places with purpose. Guiding deep research into places and destinations she reveals their cultural potential and distinctiveness. With close to 20 years internatio...

Nick explores his interest in progressive, diverse spaces for working and learning. He has a passion for promoting technology to innovate in how we create modern workplaces. In our podcast he share some of the secrets to Hawkins\Brown's unique approach to design. Super passionate (and speaking at the speed of sound), Nick leads teams delivering award-winning designs in the workspace sector. He shares here his deep understanding of workspace client needs and future aspirations, enabling thoug...

I find talking to Will is always inspiring, and though he's from a different sector I love his approach to work and passion for self initiated socially beneficial projects. Though he's a Landscape Architect by trade I find it hard to 'put him in a box', to me he's more and inventor / creator. "Will joins the dots between architecture, art, the environment and imagination, adopting an innovative approach to the standard design process. He works across various sites, scales & styles, from ...

Jennifer Bryan is a published author, speaker and Director of Change and Leadership, who has worked with nearly 40 different organisations across multiple industries. In today's podcast Jennifer manages to unpack all the complex elements you need to consider when looking at change management. Much of her work is centred around her values of helping people, though her work that means helping people on all levels, by making sure people are thought of first, last and throughout change projects ...

James Saunders is the Associate Director of Workplace Recruitment at Talent Locker, they specialise in placing experts in Workplace Consulting and Change Management. Every business we speak to seems to be struggling to fill positions or find great people, so we thought this was a perfect time to ask an expert where have they all gone? James has a fantastic network of people that can help design an environment that'll bring the best out of your employees. With 15 years’ recruitment experien...

Friend of the show Nigel Oseland is back with his most recent book on workplace design, 'Beyond the Workplace Zoo', backed up with years of research and experience (and his wife Maggie's insistence he gets out of her hair during lockdown). Nigel is an environmental psychologist, workplace strategist, change manager, researcher, international speaker and published author with 11 years of research and 23 years workplace consulting experience at some groundbreaking firms including workpla...

I had the pleasure of meeting Lee at the Virtual Interiors Event during a talk we did together. This is one of our longer recordings as Lee is so engaging I struggled to cut much of it out. Lee founded & continues to lead globally renowned Architecture & Interior Design studio PENSON, is a regular global keynote inspirational speaker covering business & workplace change & is engaged as global Programme Director to deliver business-wide culture & workplace enhancements for...

We've worked with both Dani and Michael of MoreySmith on some of our favorite (and indeed award-winning) projects. We love working with MoreySmith due to their attention to detail and the fact that they push every project as a matter of course. Dani has recently been promoted to Director of Design, she joined MoreySmith in 2010 with a BSC first-class honours degree in Management and Marketing of Textiles from Manchester University and a Diploma from the Interior Design School. Her proj...

Jonathan is a tech entrepreneur, digital marketing educator, and keynote speaker, with decades of experience in growing businesses. We're taking a slightly different angle for today's episode — looking at how digital can help us engage with employees and build our brand. In 2018 he launched Growva, an organisation designed to educate and help leaders of growing businesses to increase sales and customer engagement by better using their websites and other digital tools. He is actively involved...

I met Simon through my good friend Ben James, and was immediately captivated by his warmth and humour, which you'll hear comes across well in the interview. Simon Co-Founded Jump with Shaun Fernandes 21 years ago and has grown an enviable list of clients (starting with Nike no less). Very much focused on how to capture the spirit of a brand through their work, Jump's clients include Google, Nike, Rapha, Fidelity, Saatchi & Saatchi. Bloomberg, Starwood Hotels, Unite Student Accommodation,...

Beth and Sally met at Sketch before both setting up their respective businesses just before lockdown. As they navigated their new ventures and caught up with their network. "We kept hearing the same message, there was a loss of confidence in meeting face to face which felt like it was stalling the market. We were both missing the opportunities created by bumping into people — the organic connections we all make and leads we pick up. We kept saying to each other, "the industry really needs a...

Caroline Pontifex is director of workplace experience at KKS Savilles and leads their occupier and workplace strategy team. Advising occupiers using workplace as a vehicle for change, and developers ensuring real estate solutions are able to respond to change, her work analysing emerging occupier and workplace trends, and developing standards and space planning principles has lead to the studio winning prestigious awards.

Due to the current situation with Covid I wanted to touch base with podcast favourites Giuseppe Boscherini & Nikita Mikhailov who are joined by Olga Vysotska ( Treasurer, Board Member, Maternal Mental Health Alliance; Chief Listening Officer, PsyPub) to talk about how Covid is affecting us as we work from home over a prolonged period. Giuseppe is a designer and architect who is constantly thinking around problems, and as part of his response to Covid, home working and creating something ...

We catch up with Neil Usher, Chief Workplace & Change Strategist, GoSpace AI, on the back of his talk at Workplace Trends which you can find here https://workplacetrends.co/events/london-oct-2020. Neil is an avid blogger and author of two books, The Elemental Workplace, and now Elemental Change. We interviewed Neil just over two years ago and it's still one of the most listened to episodes (well worth a listen if you haven't already). From his wealth of client-side management and l...

Our interview with Rachel Basha, Founder and Design Director and Nicola Osborn, Creative Director of Basha—Franklin. As an Interior Design business they have human-centric design at the core of their work, we caught up with them after their Future Forward webinar which you can catch here. Rachel started Basha Franklin only a couple of years after arriving in the UK, and as an agency, they're going from strength to strength with an enviable client list. Nikki joined as Creative Director in Se...