Adaptability - How to Accommodate Changing User Preferences

Financial and real estate crises and 'new ways of working' reduce the need for office space. As a consequence office markets have become replacement markets without a quantitative need for new office buildings: New buildings drive out bad buildings. In the Netherlands, currently 15% of the office space is vacant, of which 60% is structurally vacant. When relocating, office organisations consider buildings and locations within geographically defined markets that optimally facilitate their main processes and support image and financial yield. Sustainable office space is important for image, status and possible expansion. Hitherto, new office developments were the response to this demand. Meanwhile, public opinion and governmental awareness oppose new office construction in locations with high vacancy. New ideas are needed to realise sustainable office space while limiting new developments. Redesign and upgrade of the existing building stock could be the egg of Columbus.Knowledge of user preferences is important to understand relocations. In former research the relationship between property characteristics and office user preferences was revealed. This paper aims at answering the questions: which property characteristics are important for office relocations? To which extent are accommodation preferences changing? To answer these questions, interviews were held with decision makers of large-scale office organisations and accommodation experts, discussing the triggers for relocations. Henceforth, surveys were held among creative office organisations, representing new user preferences. This study is part of an on-going study on changes of office user preferences and the effect of these changes on the office market and the built environment.