So, you feel that your business needs are not being met by your current workspace – this maybe due to increasing staff numbers, changes in working practices, increased demand for machinery, more stock holding space, physical degradation or a combination of elements, for example – what should you consider in order to get the desired result?
Whilst the ‘traditional’ view of Japanese workspaces is one of ‘robot-like efficiency’, a move is now underway to provide workspaces to promote creativity, well-being and productivity. Are there any lessons to be learned for UK businesses looking to relocate or undertake and office fit out or refurbishment?
When Facebook selected to move their HQ to a pre-existing set of buildings in Menlo Park, their brief to interior designers Gensler was that the fit-out should be “open, mobile, socially connected, dimensionally aware, culturally relevant and personally sustaining“. How did this philosophy-led approach to interior design be realised and ware there any lessons that can be learnt from their approach?
When it comes to designing an office environment you would usually imagine a very standard design, right? Well, in 2018, the standard table, chairs and desktop computer isn’t good enough for some of the most well known businesses and brands in the world.
The world of office design, as with any sphere of industry, is replete with buzzwords and nomenclature to describe various concepts from the practical and mundane to the ideological and unusual. Many paradigms swiftly come and go but at the very cutting edge sits biophilic design … and it’s prevalence is growing apace.
With over 70 million work days being lost to mental health every year, it is important for employers to take responsibility for creating a work space that is a happy and healthy place for employees to work in.
The modern office is no longer just about being a clinical space with a purpose for just functionality with recent research identifying the modern office as rapidly changing to create a more comfortable space, with greater emphasis placed on employee’s well-being through office design.
As everyone knows in business, the only constant is change, and in an ever-changing environment it’s not just the practices of a business that evolve but the space in which they are undertaken too.
The interior design of our office space has become more and more important in the last decade. No longer is a computer, wall partition and telephone sufficient in the workplace and more businesses are taking notice of the impact that a more comfortable, flexible and brighter environment can have on the well-being and mood of employees.
Traditional office-design thinking was to minimise areas of staff congregation and any areas other than workspace were kept to a bare minimum. However, this approach has radically been shaken-up in recent years and the reasoning behind it, and impact this shift has on a business and its staff, may surprise you!
