Milan's Design Legacy Inspires Future of Workplace Innovation at BCO Conference

A team from chapmanbdsp attended this year’s British Council for Offices (BCO) conference at the end of May in Milan, experiencing the usual mix of plenary sessions, workshops and office tours, in a city proud of both cultural history and its ability to look forward and push the boundaries of the future of design and construction.

In one of the keynote sessions, Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffè, Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at SDA Bocconi School of Management, showed how workplaces could better integrate life and work to foster connections, drawing parallels from Milan’s evolution from a walled city to an open one, blending heritage and contemporary architecture and showcasing how quality design shaped successful cities.

Another standout session was given by Philippa Wagner, whose remit as Founder and Creative Lead at PeoplePlacesSpaces is to help hospitality brands and experiences stand out from the crowd. She talked about the power of brand, design and quality, in line with the conference's overall theme of ‘Making Your Mark’. Just as Milan has elevated itself as a city renowned for fashion, architecture and innovation, so a strong, design-led identity can elevate property value and occupant experience, reflecting the essence of Milan's role in fashion, architecture, and innovation. The opportunity to visit the Milano Innovation District (MIND), a new Italian institute for life sciences, meanwhile, embodied the idea of cooperation from academic institutions, corporate partners and a mix of other public and private firms.

Sustainability was once again high on the agenda at this year’s BCO conference with a spectacular case in point being the visit to the Bosco Verticale residential towers in the Puerto Nova district of the city. A benchmark for green building, the design by Stefano Boeri Architetti features a vertical forest architectural typology. Consisting of two towers measuring 110 and 76 metres in height respectively, the structures hosts 800 trees, 4,500 shrubs, and 20,000 plants from a hundred different plant species and as such boasts a range of benefits including CO2 absorption, oxygen production, optimisation of water management and reduction of noise pollution. Other sustainable features include heat pumps.

Social diversity and social value was another topic that was covered within the three day conferences and some attendees very much walked the talk, or should that be cycled the talk with a charity bike ride from Venice to Milan.

There was a conscious effort put in by the organisers to the NextGen stream of the overall programme: listening to what the younger generation has to say and giving this age group a platform to find their voice and drive meaningful change.

Regardless of age, networking was, as always, a key component of the BCO Conference with the opportunity to meet a range of stakeholders from fellow engineers to architects and developers.

This was the first conference under the stewardship of recently appointed BCO Chief Executive Officer Samantha McClary and the session which asked for feedback on how the BCO could evolve its standards and relevance was a clear sign of an organisation entering a new chapter.

We therefore look forward to exciting times in Edinburgh at the BCO Conference 2026.

Written by Helen Parton.