Article Written By: Kathryn Dawson
If you are involved in any way with office design or layout but don't know very much about it then you have come to the right place. The first thing to consider when designing an office is where the entrance is and whether or not an entrance lobby is required. If the office regularly receives visitors or clients then the chances are good you may require a reception desk. You may also require a waiting area - this doesn't need to be anything more than a couple of chairs and small coffee table. The next thing to think about is the communal area. All offices are required to have some kind of kitchen area with cooking facilities. You are likely to have a kettle too and a fridge of some kind. As well as a kitchen you may want a staff room or some kind of room where employees can take their breaks and eat their lunch. This can be just a small room with a few chairs in it, or you may decide it is not necessary. Having a good working environment is important, and that means your employees need to be looked after well. In this day and age when office workers can be at risk of conditions such as repetitive strain injury, regular breaks should be encouraged and eating lunch at desks should not be. Having at least one meeting room is likely to be a very important part of the office design. Depending on what the organisation does and how big the meetings are likely to be will depend on the size of the room. This should be drawn into the initial design because not thinking about it could leave you without the space for an appropriately sized meeting room. The rest of the space will be allocated to desks for the staff. Having a completely open area for employees is not always the best idea as distractions can be too great. It is a good idea to a few offices with more than one desk in. You could have one for the finance department and one for the sales team for example. Having good quality office partitioning is the best way to divide up the office into separate offices. It is cost effective, easy to install and extremely robust. If you choose wisely you can ensure the partitioning you use can be taken down and installed somewhere else at a later date. That way if the layout of the office is to change, the partitioning is not wasted but instead reused.When designing an office, think how the office partitioning can be used to create the best and most productive work environment possible. Always choose demountable partitioning or glass screens so that at a future time the offices can be altered and changed as necessary. If you follow the above advice then you will end up with a practical and attractive office.
This Article Has Been Published on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 and Read 230 Times