When it comes to office design, space planning is vital. Knowing what a business needs in terms of space for office areas, meeting rooms, break out areas, staff, equipment and furniture etc. in an office area feeds into the office design considerations for London and Kent businesses. Taking time to plan the design and layout of your available office space will provide you with the maximum benefit possible.
Of course office design considerations should cover everything from space planning and layout to types of lighting and required lighting levels, acoustics and ensuring that the office space sound levels are managed appropriately to heating, ventilation and air conditioning to electrical and plumbing work depending on the facilities required. However space planning should be a top priority and once fit out objectives are known space planning can help you to focus on business and staff needs.
Getting your space planning right is the first step to providing your staff with “the ideal office space” custom designed for your business needs and processes. Here are the steps we recommend in space planning your next office design.
Analysing Your Current Office Design / Space
When it comes to first steps you should always look at how you use your current office space. Consider how you intended the various areas within your current office design would be used and then compare this with how they are actually being used.
You should also look at where your office design space is being underutilised, perhaps where space has been allocated to a task or process which is no longer required or where the space isn’t conducive to the required task or doesn’t have the right equipment needed for the work to be carried out. Equally important is where space is always busy. This can happen when too many people need to access one area at the same time and find it is always in use. This can cause a number of issues e.g. when a team needs to meet but the meeting room is already occupied. In this situation you may decide that you require more meeting areas. These may be formal meeting rooms or ad hoc break out areas.
Define Your Office Design Requirements
The next step after analysing your current office space is to determine your business needs which will feed into your office design requirements. Look at how your business operates and your business processes and tasks. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What type of tasks does my business need to accommodate within the current space?
- Is there enough space to designate different areas or would open planned space be more suitable?
- If you have different departments do they need to work closely together? If so is there enough space to have these departments in close proximity or within easy reach of each other?
- Does any work carried out within your business require privacy?
- Do the various job roles in your business require designated workspace or individual office space?
- How many meetings do you have throughout the day, week or year? Would one meeting room be enough or would more be required?
- How many staff do you currently have and are you likely to recruit more staff in the short or long term?
- How much space will be required for break out areas?
- How much space will be needed for social space like kitchen facilities, tea points etc.?
- If you need to store paper documents how much space will be required?
- Where will printers and other electrical equipment be sited?
- How much storage space will be needed?
These types of questions will enable you to put together a picture of how your new office design and space should look moving forward. It can also help you to decide whether your current office space will meet your needs now and in the future or whether you need to consider looking for alternative office space moving forward.
It’s interesting to note that many companies look at their current space and think they will have to move to get the space they need. As a expert office design contractor who specialises in office refurbishments, office design and space / layout planning we can work with you to define your needs and look at whether your current space can be redesigned to fit your business needs. Sometimes all it takes is the ability to visualise what your office space could look like through digital rendering.
Planning Your New Office
The final step is to take what you’ve learned from analysing your current office design and defining your office design requirements to start to plan your new office space and how to lay it out to meet your ongoing business needs.
This can be achieved through digital rendering. As with anything, trying to visualise how something will look can be very difficult especially when you are looking at an office space filled with furniture and people. Digital rendering (digital rendering is the process of generating a photorealistic image from a 2D or 3D model by means of a computer program). A digital render can show you what your office space will look like once your interior design is complete. Using a render you can e.g.
- Look at how office space can be partitioned into the areas you have defined you need.
- Make sure you have the right numbers of meeting areas.
- Check that the layout of various areas will allow your teams to work together.
- Make the most of natural light.
- Position break out areas so that they are effective in allowing staff to step away from their desks and take some downtime.
- Ensure that there are adequate and easily accessible storage areas.
- Check that the decor works with your branding.
- Look at the overall office look and style.
Making sure that your office design meets all your needs, shows your business off to its best advantage, supports and enhances your staff’s working environment all go towards making sure you get the most out of your office interior design and refurbishment. It will also ensure you keep to budget and the office interior design work stays on track.
JBH Refurbishments Office Design and Space Planning Contractor
To take advantage of JBH Refurbishments 30+ years expertise in office design and space planning contact us via our contact form or calling us on 0333 207 0339.