The role of the office has been irreversibly disrupted by remote working established under Covid and there is immense uncertainty around property assets. 'Right-sizing' has always been important and businesses getting it wrong face costs and waste over a 5-year lease far outweighing hard-won savings from sacrifices on fitouts while emergent patterns of hybrid-working make forecasting and planning exponentially more difficult. No part of the supply chain currently has tools to help explore or resolve that challenge. This project will create an effective, affordable, accessible, space planning tool to quickly generate and test-fit safe workspaces. It will produce initial space plans 75% faster than a skilled technician but without requiring CAD skills or industry knowledge. The output will be recognisable by a professional designer as competent, CAD-compatible and code-compliant but OPERA2 will be cheaper than CAD and as easy to use as changing dials on a radio. GAL are innovators at the forefront of applying software into urban design in the built environment and excited at the opportunity to develop the product with Arora Property supplying direct target-market client feedback and live case studies to trial elements of functionality.

Remote working established under Covid 19 lockdown will have a long term impact and businesses of all sizes face having to rethink the role of the office in their organisations. This will require space planning for new normal and distanced contingencies risk assessed to support safe return to work planning. The project will introduce software algorithms to the iteration of spatial planning, environmental performance and risk assessment. Project partners GAL and WF are leaders in the field of architecture and workplace design and delivery and at the forefront of applying software solutions into design in the built environment.