Coronavirus is concentrating minds and catapulting
cities and workplaces towards a new tomorrow, but the direction of
change was not only decided by the pandemic. This article
explains.
The prestige of a prime city postcode or downtown business
address has long been held up as a measure of the success and
stability of a company or organisation. The received wisdom was
that people with important jobs went out to work and where they
went mattered. The ideal office building was big, central and
expensive. Then along came coronavirus. The global pandemic has had
a major negative effect on economies everywhere, but it is little
exaggeration to say the heart of the city has been ripped almost
clean out. For the moment at least, the glamour has gone and big is
no longer beautiful.