Designing a “Learning Building”

In 1991, a group of eight companies, four from the UK and four Scandinavian, formed a working agreement to explore the workplace needs of user organizations and find integrated commonsense solutions to meet these evolving needs. So the Learning Building Group (LBG) was formed. Towards the end of 1991 the LBG commissioned research with the following objectives: to establish new workplace development processes and solutions which meet current and changing business needs; and to establish the feasibility, costs and benefits of processes and solutions. This review identified that new concepts were required for the procurement and production of buildings, as well as for the buildings′ design. Discusses some of the proposals which emanated from “The Workplace Design Priorities” study led by Wes McGregor, of Cochrane McGregor. This study was one of three parallel studies commissioned by the LBG – the others being “Technical Priorities” and “Cost Benefits” – the conclusions of which lead to the realization that there is a future, and it is called the learning building.