Office Matters: The BCO Podcast

In this episode of Workspace Unwired, BCO chief executive Samantha McClary sits down with Nicola Gillen, EMEA lead for Total Workspace at Cushman & Wakefield, and chair of the national judges for the BCO Awards, to unpack what truly defines excellence in today’s workplaces.

Drawing on insights from reviewing more than 100 buildings across the UK during her four years on the BCO national judging panel, Gillen shares a unique, behind-the-scenes perspective on how offices are evolving in a post-pandemic world.

The conversation explores a major shift in thinking, from inward-looking buildings designed purely for occupiers, to places that actively contribute to their communities, economies and environments.

Gillen highlights the growing importance of retrofit and reuse, the rise of human-centred design that caters to diverse working styles, and the increasing role of workspace as a catalyst for innovation and regeneration beyond London.

She also shares insights on why location and placemaking are more critical than ever, how the industry is responding to sustainability challenges, and why the BCO Awards process provides unmatched real-world insight by focusing on buildings that are already in use.

While Gillen offers some invaluable guidance for future award entrants on how to make their submission and show-and-tell shine for judges, what this episode is really is, is a call to action. A call to design workplaces with purpose, responsibility and long-term impact in mind and to rethink what value truly means in the built environment.

Listen in for key insights on why:

• Great workplaces go beyond the buildingThe best projects actively shape their communities, supporting regeneration, social value and economic growth.
• Reuse, retrofit and sustainability are central to delivering excellenceRetaining existing structures and reducing carbon is no longer optional. It’s the industry norm.
• Designing for people means designing for everyone
  Successful workspaces balance collaboration, wellbeing and focus, recognising the diverse needs of users.

Enjoy!

Find out more about the BCO Awards at https://www.bco.org.uk/events/awards

In this episode of the BCO’s Workspace Unwired podcast, chief executive Samantha McClary talks with Clare Fielding about inclusion, workplace design and the importance of creating spaces where everyone feels safe, respected and able to thrive.

Fielding, a former planning lawyer, managing partner and now coach, reflects on her experience as a trans woman and what she describes as becoming a “reluctant activist” in response to increasingly polarised public debate.

The conversation explores the complexity of current discussions around gender, legal guidance and workplace inclusion, particularly in relation to the built environment.

Rather than fuelling division, Fielding argues for a more thoughtful, balanced and human-centred approach—one that starts with dignity, listening and practical problem-solving.

Together, the pair discuss how designers, developers and operators can create workplaces that offer choice, comfort and safety for all, without humiliating or excluding anyone.

Fielding is also a board member for Freehold, the property industry’s LGBT+ network, so utilises this episode – with the full endorsement of the BCO – to shout out the work Freehold is doing to make the property sector more inclusive.

This episode isn’t really about workspace, it’s about being more compassionate in everything that we do. And, if we bring that inclusive thinking into our design, development and operation of workspaces, we’ll ultimately deliver space that works for everyone.

Listen in if you want:

• A thoughtful, human-centred perspective on inclusion
  The episode cuts through noise and polarisation to focus on dignity, empathy and practical inclusion.
• To learn how to connect social inclusion to workplace and design decisions
  Listeners will hear useful ideas about how offices and shared spaces can better support everyone.
• Valuable sector insight from an experienced voice
  Fielding brings legal, leadership and lived experience, alongside insight into Freehold’s work in the property industry.

Enjoy!

In this episode of BCO’s Workspace Unwired podcast, chiefexecutive Samantha McClary is joined by Gary Elliott and Georgia Elliott-Smith of Elliott Wood to explore how engineering can move from simply reducing harmto actively shaping a more sustainable built environment.

Drawing on decades of experience in engineering, propertyand sustainability, the conversation looks at why engineers must act as the bridge between climate science and real-world action, and why retrofit, reuse and circular thinking are becoming essential rather than optional.

Through practical examples, including the reuse of structural steel and creative ways to unlock more space within existingbuildings, the Gary and Georgia explain how low-carbon solutions can also deliver commercial value, resilience and stronger stories for occupiers and investors.

The discussion also tackles the need for braver leadership,better education across the profession, and a policy environment that supports refurbishment-first thinking.

This is a conversation about courage, curiosity andresponsibility, about how the built environment sector can challenge old assumptions, make smarter use of what already exists, and create workplaces that are not only lower impact, but more human, characterful and fit for the future.

Listen in for key takeaways on:

• Why engineers are the crucial link between climate science, policy and practical delivery in the built environment.
• How retrofit, reuse and circular economy thinking can cut carbon, reduce waste and still create commercial value.
• Why courage, education and better storytelling are essential to help clients, policymakers and the wider industry embracechange.

Enjoy!

In this episode of Workspace Unwired, BCO chief executiveSamantha McClary talks to Elliott Sparsis about his journey from early entrepreneurial experience in a family business to co-founding Sociable Surveyors, a global internship platform that unexpectedly created a powerful industry network.

After gaining foundational experience in real estate atSavills and Blackstone, where he honed a rigorous approach to detail and execution, he moved into the flexible workspace sector with Convene, bringing a hospitality-led model to London.

Sparsis now leads Together, a business designed around large-scale meeting and event spaces that blend real estate fundamentals with high-quality hospitality. He argues that post-COVID, companies are increasingly outsourcing large gathering spaces due to inefficiency and cost, creating demand for specialist venues. Together, he says, differentiates itself by delivering highly flexible, client-tailored environments with in-house services, prioritising authenticity, seamless experience, and human comfort.

A key philosophy for Sparsis and the Together team is that“connection is infrastructure". He believes that as digital and AI-driven interactions increase, the value of physical, in-person experiences will also rise. And it this growing need for human connection, that he believes will see his Together business thrive.

Listen in for more on:

• Why physical space where human interactions are enabled isrising in value

• Why hospitality and real estate is the future and why thetwo need to be perfectly aligned

• Why attention to detail is key in driving excellence incustomer experience

Enjoy!

In this episode of Workspace Unwired BCO chief executive Samantha McClary talks with architect Julian de Metz about why he loves “crawling all over buildings”, why great workplace design is fundamentally about human experience rather than technical compliance and why we need to sometimes ditch the digital and be more analogue.

De Metz is co-founder of dMFK, an architectural practice he founded with university friends Paul Forbes and Ben Knight, and is incredibly passionate about creating human-centred workspaces, that have culture at their heart.

Bringing existing buildings back to life, working hard to find solutions, and putting real life interaction ahead of digital distraction are key to his work.

Recorded less than 24 hours after GPE’s 170 Piccadilly scheme, a retrofit project worked on by dMFK, picked up the BCO London Award for Best Project up to 2,500m2, de Metz uses the building as an example of how sensitive design can reconcile heritage buildings with modern performance, creating spaces that feel uplifting, functional, and market‑appropriate.

Listen in as the pair discuss design as the primary differentiator when it comes to quality workspaces, how the purpose of our offices is to build culture and why we need to work harder to unlock the untapped potential in our existing buildings.

All that plus, how we balance standards and guidance with the need to encourage a more values‑led design focus and why, ultimately, if we want to deliver workspaces that work for human beings, we need to unwire ourselves from excessive digital dependency and re‑embrace physical, human interaction as the true purpose of workplace design.

Enjoy.

In this episode of Workspace Unwired BCO chief executive Samantha McClary takes her portable studio to Birmingham and joins Bruntwood SciTech’s Moe Ali for a walking tour of the firm’s assets in the UK’s second city.

Starting at Centre City, Bruntwood’s redevelopment of a Brutalist beast close to New Street station, the pair pound the streets of Birmingham visiting a handful of buildings from the traditional to the modern. Along the way Ali shares the Bruntwood story, unpacks the challenges and the opportunities facing Birmingham and talks candidly about the market and the firm’s own needs to pivot in times of uncertainty.

Recorded live and on the go, this recording has background noises and will transport you from building to building with cut aways and jumps, but it is also full of the life and character of a bustling city. And, I guarantee that you won’t be able to help yourself being drawn in by Ali’s infectious passion for Birmingham and the assets he looks after in the city.

Be bold, be Birmingham, be Bruntwood?

Enjoy.

In this episode of Workspace Unwired BCO chief executiveSamantha McClary is talking to Doug Higgins, a director at Socius, and Emma Goodford, consultant adviser at Railpen, about not one but two major developments they are delivering together in Cambridge.

While both Mill Yard and Botanic Place offer plenty ofworkspace, like all careful development today, both also focus heavily on creating place. An office development today has to offer more than just a place to work. It needs to be a place to thrive, a place to feel alive, to be inspired, and, say the pair, a place where you can – and should – have a little fun.

The importance of the impact that places we build have onsociety runs deep through both Socius and Railpen. As a B Corp, how the Socius business impacts on society and the planet is written into its Articles of Association, and as a £35bn pension fund dedicated to railway workers, Railpenhas to make sure that its assets can continue to create value for its 350,000 members.

Listen in as the trio, fuelled by Percy Pigs, explore howoccupier expectations are shifting, why amenity now extends far beyond the building’s walls, what it really takes to create workplaces that act as magnets not mandates, and how both Mill Yard and Botanic Place are intentionally prioritising community integration, local operators, flexibilityand wellbeing to ensure they deliver successful new places within Cambridge.

Enjoy.

In this episode of the Workspace Unwired podcast BCO chiefexecutive Samantha McClary is talking to Patrick Dumas, founder and CEO of Square Mile Farms, about how his company is transforming offices into hubs of urban agriculture, wellbeing, and community connection.

Over the course of this 40 minute conversation, recorded onlocation in London’s Paddington, Dumas shares how what began as an attempt to establish a distributed food production network across London's rooftops hasevolved into a human‑centred, experiential amenity that brings people back into workplaces—not for desks, but for shared experiences, health, and purpose.

While the farms may have started as a way to help businessesdeliver on the E of their ESG strategies, Dumas says the S has become the company’s most powerful impact area. Farms attract interaction across hierarchies, while school visits, nutrition workshops, and regular harvest donations to food banks expand businesses into the local community.

Listen in to find out more about how the farms work, why bigbusinesses like British Land, Vodafone and GSK are leaning and why Dumas has an ambition to become the largest farm in Europe, based entirely in London, that sells no food.

And, of course, why he wants designers and developers tointegrate farms as a standard amenity in our workplaces.

Enjoy.

In this episode of Workspace Unwired BCO chief executiveSamantha McClary gets a lesson in proper due diligence with Dave Bebb, a partner at specialist construction and engineering law firm Fenwick Elliott.

Bebb shares insights from his extensive career in constructionlaw about how to limit the risks to projects of insolvency somewhere in the supply chain.

Insolvency remains a real threat in today’s environment.Construction is still the most “critically distressed” industry in the UK, according to Begbies Traynor’s latest Red Flag Alert, with real estate and property services showing a 23.5% increase in significant financial distress in the final quarter of 2025.

It is a tough world out there, but if you’re keen to knowwhat to do pre, during and post project to ensure you mitigate the risks of insolvency, then this is the podcast for you.

Listen in as Bebb shares invaluable advice on how to protectyourself against one of the parties in your supply chain going bust, what signs to look out for to give you an early warning advantage for when a party may be in trouble and what to do and what not to do to keep your project on track.

Invaluable advice for free. What’s not to love?

Enjoy.

In this episode of Workspace Unwired Dave Cheshire,sustainability director at AECOM and author of Regenerative by Design, joins BCO chief executive Samantha McClary to make the case for regenerative design.

This fascinating conversation covers everything from toiletsto civic rights for all living creatures and why delivering buildings that are “less bad” for the environment just isn’t good enough anymore.

Listen in for useful examples of great practice and a lessonon how regenerative design has to become the new normal if we are reallyserious about protecting our planet.

Enjoy.