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Lack of depth is the usual price paid for breadth of ambition. However, in order to make sense of the current enthusiasm for intelligent office building it is necessary not only to investigate what is happening in countries as widely dispersed as Japan, Sweden and the United States but also to indulge in a rather liberal interpretation of what office buildings actually are. The first benefit of this point of view is that a great deal can be learned from contrasts between offices built in different countries (and for different organisations) particularly about values held by the individuals and about the social structures which make up the modern office organisation. The second benefit is that a better understanding of how offices are built and serviced, through time, is of great practical advantage to those who must manage rapidly changing organisations.

The importance of adaptability in office buildings has increased during the past years, mostly due to factors like rapid change, both in private and public organisations, new and innovative work place design and growing environmental concerns about building redundancy.

The research design of the study presented here is a comparative case study, where recently built office buildings by 11. Norwegian real estate developers are assessed with regard to 16 different adaptability measures.

The study shows that office buildings built by owner‐occupiers are more adaptable than office buildings built by the group who develop property for renting and management, and considerably more than the office buildings built by the group who develop property for sale to investors. A short‐term perspective on property investment, i.e. that of the group who develop property for sale to investors, does not favour adaptability concerns. A long‐term perspective as well as a use‐value perspective on property investment, i.e. that of the owner‐occupier stakeholder group, on the other hand, do favour adaptability in office buildings.

Whether this research can help making buildings more adaptable, depends on whether the real estate customers, i.e. the users, they who pay for using the office building, understand the value of adaptability and are willing to pay the extra cost of adaptability. The building professions, including the real estate developers, claim that they know how to make office buildings adaptable.

The value of this paper may lie in demonstrating that this knowledge is not used in practice.

Across use adaptation is a possible way of dealing with long term vacant office buildings, albeit previous research shows that there are many obstacles to be thrived. In The Netherlands several successful transformations of offices into housing were completed. Nevertheless, transformations do not take place on a large scale. High building costs are the main reason. Hence, new office developments should anticipate future programmatic transformation. This paper seeks answers to the questions: Is it possible to anticipate future programmatic change? To what extent will anticipation on future possibilities influence building costs?

The authors reviewed existing studies to gather information about transformation building costs and the critical success factors of transformations. The building design and costs for new office buildings were then studied, designed with enhanced transformation potential, focussing on two standard office building types, the central core tower and the single corridor slab, using the cost model PARAP.

The outcome of this research proposes an approach to office development that deals with adaptability as a means of realising enhanced future value.

To limit the research, only two standard office building types were studied.

Next to changes in the construction method of standard office buildings, the research suggests consciousness in the design phase of office developments to improve adaptability.

Based on studies of completed across use adaptations, the paper gives recommendations on how to improve the adaptability of new office buildings.

Green building construction was adopted as a strategy to reduce energy consumption and the overall impact of the built environment on our natural environment. However, in Malaysia, previous studies have reaffirmed that green office buildings consume a substantial amount of energy, compared to their counterparts in Singapore. Moreover, there is still a significant performance gap between predicted energy measurements and actual operational energy consumption of green office buildings in Malaysia, due to occupants’ behavioural discrepancies. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop energy efficiency practices for occupants of green office buildings in Malaysia. The developed practices integrate technology, organisation policy, and occupants’ behavioural strategies, in order to reduce the energy consumption of green office buildings in Malaysia.

To achieve the research goal, a mixed (quantitative and qualitative) research method was used to collect data from the research population. In total, 53 respondents working in a green office building complex in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia were surveyed using a questionnaire. Additionally, three top management staff of the green office building and two Malaysian construction professionals were interviewed. The study adopted convenience sampling technique in selecting the research respondents. The data from the questionnaire were analysed using SPSS software (version 22) while the interview data were analysed via thematic content analysis.

The findings suggest that the integration of technological strategy (use of BIM tools, sustainable building materials, etc.); organisational strategy (develop, implement and evaluate action plans, use of monitor/control systems, etc.); and occupants behavioural strategy (training, incentives, occupants energy efficiency guide, etc.) will critically reduce energy consumption of green office buildings in Malaysia.

Based on the findings, energy efficiency practices are developed to guide occupants in reducing the energy consumption of green office buildings in Malaysia. This strategy will contribute to reducing the performance gap that exists between predicted energy and actual energy use of green office buildings in Malaysia. However, the developed energy efficiency practices need to be validated to ascertain its workability in the green office building context.

The purpose of this paper is to present research which analysed energy consumption in the Melbourne central business district (CBD) office stock and examined all buildings to identify CO₂ emissions in 2005. The rationale was that, by profiling a large group of buildings, it would be possible to identify characteristics of the stock. For example, do older buildings typically emit more CO₂ per square metre than newer buildings?

This research conducted a detailed analysis of all Melbourne CBD office stock to identify which patterns and trends emerged regarding building characteristics and carbon emissions. The study examined variables such as building size, number of employees, occupancy levels, physical characteristics and building age.

By examining all office stock and aggregating data, the results confirm that it is possible to identify general physical building characteristics and carbon emissions. This research confirmed that clear relationships existed within the Melbourne CBD office stock in terms of building size, age and the density of occupation in relation to CO₂ emissions.

Practitioners can apply this knowledge to the professional advice they give to clients to assist in achieving increased energy efficiency in the office stock, for example in refurbishment being conscious that smaller buildings will be generally less energy‐efficient than larger ones.

Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of office buildings, accommodating large number of users, is significantly demanded, to ascertain the provision and upkeep of users' requirements. This paper presents the findings of a POE of an office building located in Saudi Arabia, as a case study.

A mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative research activities were conducted to achieve the objective of this study. Previous studies were analyzed to identify 28 performance indicators, grouped under seven technical and functional performance elements in office buildings. A walkthrough served to gain familiarity with the building, and identify the obvious performance defects. Interviews were conducted to solicit the users' perceptions about the performance elements, and initiate discussions based on the findings of the walkthrough. A user satisfaction survey was then deployed to quantify the user's feedback on the performance of the building.

Users of the case study office building were generally satisfied with all the technical performance elements, except visual comfort. They were also dissatisfied with two functional performance elements, namely office layout and building equipment.

Recommendations were developed to improve the performance of the case study building. The approach followed and the defined indicators can be of practical value to design professionals, administrators and facilities managers, responsible for the design and operation of office buildings.

Office buildings are valuable business capital for their corporate organizations. This study contributes to the facilities management literature, through providing a systematic approach for the quality and performance appraisal of the performance elements of office buildings.

The built environment is a major source of carbon emissions. However, 80 per cent of the damage arises through the operational phase of a building’s life. Office buildings are the most significant building type in terms of emission-reduction potential. Yet, little research has been undertaken to examine the barriers faced by building operators in transitioning to a green operation of the office buildings in their care. This study aims to identify those barriers.

Building facilities managers with between 7 and 25 years’ experience in operating primarily Melbourne high-rise office buildings were interviewed. The sample was taken from LinkedIn connections, with ten agreeing to participate in semi-structured interviews – out of the 17 invitations sent out. Interview comments were recorded, coded and categorised to identify the barriers sought by this study.

Seven categories of barriers to effecting green operation of office buildings were extracted. These were financial, owner-related, tenant-related, technological, regulatory, architectural and stakeholder interest conflicts. Difficulties identifying green operation strategies that improved cost performance or return on investment of buildings was the major barrier.

Government, policymakers and facilities managers themselves have been struggling with how to catalyse a green transition in the operation of office buildings. By identifying the barriers standing in the way, this study provides a concrete point of departure from which remedial strategies and policies may be formulated and put into effect.

The uptake of green operation of office buildings has been extremely slow. Though barriers have been hypothesised in earlier works, this is the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, that categorically identifies and tabulates the barriers that stand in the way of improving the green operational performance of office buildings, drawing on the direct knowledge of facilities experts.

This paper identifies the importance of key factors influencing the quality of CBD office buildings. An office building quality index (BQI) is constructed and its relationship with net rent assessed.

The importance of 30 property‐specific CBD office building attributes on the quality of CBD office buildings is assessed using a survey of property industry respondents. The analytical hierarchy process procedure is used to determine weights for each of these attributes to construct an office BQI.

Findings indicate that functionality (31.0 per cent), services (22.6 per cent), access and circulation (16.4 per cent), presentation (13.1 per cent), management (11.5 per cent) and amenities (5.4 per cent) are the order of importance in assessing office building quality. There was found to be a strong functional relationship between office building quality and net rent.

A better understanding of the factors influencing CBD office building quality is determined, with a more effective and practical office BQI developed for benchmarking purposes in property portfolios.

Importance of CBD office building attributes is determined and a new CBD office BQI is developed for practical implementation in the property industry.

Purpose — This study seeks to investigate the degree to which energy efficiency is incorporated into office building refurbishment and capital expenditure with the emphasis placed on a cost‐benefit analysis from the owner’s perspective. Design/methodology/approach – In order to develop a research framework, a thorough literature review was conducted of three disciplines being construction technology, building refurbishment and property management. The study identifies differences between varying levels of capital expenditure to ensure an existing building is more energy efficient, with the emphasis placed on the cost of implementation and the potential for tenants to acknowledge the increased energy efficiency via higher rents. Findings – Office buildings have been identified as a contributor to global warming during the construction phase, however during the building lifecycle there is a greater contribution to CO₂ omissions. Whilst various building designs and construction techniques have evolved to improve energy efficiency, the focus has largely been placed on new buildings where it is easier to incorporate change and innovative approaches. However, the proportion of new buildings constructed each year is relatively small in comparison to existing building stock, which requires regular capital expenditure to maintain and attract new tenants within a competitive marketplace. Practical implications – The increasing importance of energy efficiency affects the office market in a variety of different ways. Originality/value – This paper identifies important links between the environment and the built environment, and the implications for office building owners.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case of an office building in England and show how the technology in energy efficiency in building will contribute to energy conservation.

The paper presents a case of an office building. The building is then modelled and analysed using IES Virtual Environment VE to estimate the Target Emissions Rate (TER) and the Building Emissions Rate (BER) to see how the building could satisfy Part L of the Building Regulations.

The building in case use various sustainable solutions such as limiting the heat loss and gain through the fabric, ventilation system with a good high heat recovery system, increasing the availability of daylight and good lighting control system. The office building in the case study is in full compliance with Part L of the Building Regulations. The sustainable technology in the building will assist the compliance with Part L of the Building Regulations.

This is a single case study building; more case studies for buildings of this nature are required.

The paper demonstrates various feasible solutions of sustainable technology in buildings that might help comply with the regulation.

The case study building is a real case taken directly from one of the author's projects when he was working as a building services engineer. This case study building and its sustainable features have not been presented before in an academic journal.