The Great Repurposing Of Office Space

Dr Stuart Woolley
CodeX
Published in
8 min readMay 22, 2022

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A sea change is coming in urban offices — just how can they be made more amenable to the progressive software engineer?

Photo by MART PRODUCTION from Pexels

The Overhang

The elephant in the room of commercial office real estate right now is the number of companies not renewing their leases, cancelling future capacity plans, or simply pulling out of longer term construction projects.

The landscape of city centre offices is radically changing.

There will shortly be an enormous overhang (to coin a phrase) in the amount of office space available and a sizeable decrease in income for those companies involved in the leasing, selling, or operation of office developments in central, usually city centre, locations.

Leasing companies will default, banks will take losses, and debt will swell as more and more software engineering companies seek to downsize as, with the enormous growth of remote working, they’re effectively paying for empty unattractive space that no-one wants.

Well, I say no-one as I’m not including managers — they tend to be overly fond of their large offices with lovely panoramic views over other large offices also with lovely panoramic views. Oh, and designated parking spaces within the building basement and not four streets away at €5 an hour, if you can get there before…

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Dr Stuart Woolley
CodeX

Worries about the future. Way too involved with software. Likes coffee, maths, and . Would prefer to be in academia. SpaceX, X, and Overwatch fan.