Theresa Dowling: 'What about the clients? When they come to you and say, we have an enormous building/small building, and how much space per head count? - how influential can you be?'

Gary Wheeler: 'That depends on the client. The CEO is most receptive because they are about what's coming out the other end. The facilities manager is generally about cost and production.'

Phil Hutchinson: 'Facilities tend to be looking after the present. They feel less comfortable talking about the future. We can have conversations with key people about their business and if it's going where they want to go. One of our challenges is to make that conversation comfortable and open and enjoyable because it's that conversation that can lead to a really interesting and positive brief, where you have influence.'

Angela Jeng and Phil Hutchinson

Giles Martin: 'My client is usually thinking: how will my tenant find this building in the street? They see the floor plate as white stuff where, as long as I can get columns small and far apart, they're going to get value. They don't really think beyond that.'

Nick Pell: 'We have had some interesting conversations where we think about how we can design a building where we can let vertically rather than horizontally. This offers something that is not formulaic. It offers choice and raises all sorts of questions on the subject of acoustics.'

Shane Kelly: 'Inefficient buildings offer different opportunities; you can create spaces that people find more interesting. There's a building in Central St Giles that we have a project in. It's not the most efficient floorplate, but has an interesting facade. It basically breaks down a large floor into digestible, human spaces.'

Phil Hutchinson: 'Is there restorative potential in a working environment? Can you restore the equilibrium in an office?

Theresa Dowling, FX Editor

Nick Pell: 'We worked with one client a couple of years ago who couldn't let two floors. We said: How would you like overnight accommodation? How many millions of pounds a year do you spend on hotel rooms for your stay? He said quite a few. So they converted these floors to crash pads and saved a fortune.'

Phil Hutchinson: 'I had a meeting last week in Poland with some software engineers. One told me they used to go out to their car and have a kip during the day. What they were describing was that restorative moment. That was the only place they could find in the office where they could switch off.'

Paige Hodsman: 'There's a company in Amsterdam that has rooms for restorative sleep. But there has to be the culture within organisations to make that OK. The most difficult part [of introducing these areas] was training everyone to feel comfortable with going off for a nap.'

Theresa Dowling: 'Back to the open-plan issue, do clients still ask for hot desking?'

Gary Wheeler: 'Not as much. But the discussion about 60 per cent of the desks being empty during the day - that still happens.'

Nick Pell: 'I think the whole hot-desking thing is a red herring. I think it was a bandwagon lots of clients jumped on and they thought they could save money. But they discovered you need support spaces for people to go to when they don't find desks.

Paige Hodsman: 'What do you think of the subject of creativity - do you think the way we work today really fosters creativity?'

Phil Hutchinson: 'Creativity at the core is about problem solving. People much prefer solving problems within restrictions.'

Nick Pell: 'It's about problem solving but actually it's about identifying problems others don't recognise. You've got to be innovative, going beyond where the accepted line is at that moment. Creativity is perhaps the development of new ideas based on insight and knowledge, to create something that hasn't been done before.

Paige Hodsman: 'To draw us back, all of these things do relate to acoustics. It goes back to people, our sensory perceptions, the way we work in these environments. Understanding creativity is such an important part of it.

There's the time you need to concentrate, the time you need to work together, to collaborate. Acoustics is essential in everything we do.'

Simon Jackson: 'When activity-based working is done in a really profound way, it caters for the individual. People who like to have a quiet space must have those spaces around but traditional open-plan doesn't cater to that.

There is a science about how much of each type of space you provide: 60 per cent working area, 40 per cent other area. Now it's more like 40 per cent working area and 60 per cent activity and collaborative space. I've been to a space recently, a Commonwealth bank, that's actually moved to 80 per cent ancillary support space and 20 per cent desk space.

Very few people own a desk. If you drop into a desk it's for 20 to 30 minutes. But there are lots of small, quiet spaces.'

Nick Pell: 'How often are acousticians part of the design team?'

Paige Hodsman: 'Rarely.'

Gary Wheeler: 'Three or four times in my career.'

Phil Hutchinson: 'I've used an acoustic consultant three or four times. It's difficult because they produce quite a technical document. I always feel I'd like to have sat opposite an acoustician and a psychologist. It does come down to what they can do...

Often it's all about abutments, sound absorption, deflection, the technical aspects.. never behavioural issues. If we could employ a consultant who is half acoustic consultant and half behavioural then that would be a step in the right direction.'

At home with BDG
BDG hosted the FX Ecophon office design seminar at its new premises, a thoughtfully refurbished space inside the iconic Sea Containers house, on London's Southbank - just a hop, skip and a jump from Tate Modern to the east and the Royal Festival Hall to the west.

Having previously occupied an old building in Clerkenwell, the BDG team enjoyed being able to design its new London studio from scratch.

An agile workplace, it offers a variety of seating and desk options. A white 15m-long desk/table straddles the main office space, allowing for collaborative and team working along both sides. There are also 10 fixed desking points forthose who like a more traditional base.

Divided off from this space by glossy yellow USM storage boxes (for all the staff's files, books and effects) is a breakout/lounge space, with a mix of soft furnishings and tables for meetings, relaxing and lone working/ thinking. A soundproof meeting room can host formal or informal meetings, while a kitchen space with huge fridge creates a social hub for meal and break times. Acoustics are excellent, with soft furnishings to offset hard surfaces, and an exposed concrete soffit that helps to reduce echo. Lighting is all LED, from Future Designs.

With enviable views out over the Thames from its first-floor office, BDG has had the inspired idea of turning the premium, ground-floor, riverfront entrance into a flexible gallery/pop-up shop space for hire, called The Residency. The idea is that furniture manufacturers or designers involved in workspace design will occupy the space for set periods of time, opening up opportunities for collaboration and innovation both with BDG and other designers. Moooi is lined up for 2015, as is the FX Drawing Competition.

(Photos: Gareth Gardner)