Golden numbers

One of the least pleasing aspects of the development and estate agency worlds is the belief that a handful of magic numbers will tell you all you need to know about building design. This tendency was very evident after a recent talk given to property people by your editor in which the whole point of the presentation had been to draw attention to the vast number of new and emerging options in office design and location. The question from the floor was, in effect, That's all very well, but what depth should the new office building be?' As if there were one right office building depth, one golden number, which would satisfy all possible tenants, in all possible locations. Whereas, as two writers point out in this month's issue—Paul Stansall on the problems of assessing the occupational capacities of office building (page 4), Francis Duffy on sophisticated space planning techniques (page 7)—questions of design and occupation are complex and interrelated.