One of the first things we usually do as a part of a new project is to create a CAD (Computer Aided Design) drawing file of your office space as it is currently. We are then able to use this to see exactly what is where allowing us to know the locations of your partitions, doors, windows, heating and even your current furniture layout. Through our space planning process we would usually then produce a series of options as to how the new layout could look, and once complete the CAD file can be updated to ensure that it reflects the new current layout. Over time there are often many minor changes within an office layout, and we are able to come back to re-survey these, or often they can be carried out via a phone call. This then allows us to maintain an up to date plan of your office layout, which is useful for many reasons. Should you want changes to the layout in the future, these can then be produced quickly and easily using the source CAD plan, and a whole wealth of additional information can also be added such as staff names and telephone numbers, IT equipment, and even inventory tracking codes. You may also find it useful to give floor plans to new starters, and can show boundaries of different departments and their areas for charging purposes. By spending a small amount of time keeping this information up to date we are able to accurately maintain your office space plans and this will save you money in the long term, whilst also being a very useful  information source about your working environment.

You may be surprised to hear that approximately 40% of the time the average office desk is unoccupied during office hours. When you add up the amount of time that desk users are on leave, away due to illness, on courses, in meetings, or even just on lunch, it soon becomes clear that giving every member of staff their own dedicated desk may not be the best use of your valuable office space. There are many bookable systems that allow you to view exactly which desks are occupied at any time, and through using a system such as this you can increase the efficiency of your office space. The system doesn’t just apply to desks either as meeting rooms, training rooms, and manager’s offices are all spaces that could be used as a working environment if managed in a control manner. Through having better control over your desking you are able to free up space for other facilities for staff, such as breakout areas, coffee shops and even gyms; all of which are seen as a great asset to any employee.

We regularly work with companies that carry out time and motion and occupancy studies and we can recommend what would be your best course of action. Give us a call for more information.

There are many benefits to an open plan office design; better airflow, improved natural light, increased flexibility of space and a general feeling of more space. In reality though many offices have teams that require a quieter or more private environment, and rather than building partitions you can use your office storage to divide up open spaces. The advantages of this are numerous; firstly there is plenty of storage close to hand for the team, and most teams would always welcome more storage. The next benefit is that of sound absorption; a storage cabinet full of paper is actually a very good sound buffer; this can aid with the common complaint of open plan being too noisy. The cabinets make an effective barrier between teams, and as they don’t go all the way up to the ceiling, they also don’t restrict airflow. Many buildings that have extremes of temperatures (both hot spots and cold spots) have this problem as the original floorplate is usually designed to be open plan. As soon as you introduce partition walls and cellular offices the airflow is changed, and especially in buildings with air conditioning, this can cause real temperature control problems.  To avoid blocking natural light storage cabinets should be placed perpendicular to windows, and it is important to ensure that they are still accessible by all staff, not just those that sit in front of them.

There are many ways that we can help you to improve your office design layout, and so if you would like to discuss how we can help, give us a call.

You may have noticed that throughout our website we are very proud to state that we are an independent company, but what are the benefits of this? Well, put simply through being an independent company we are not tied to any supplier or product range. In fact our only aim is to ensure that our client gets the best possible service and value for money. A quick search of the web shows that there are actually very few independent space planning companies; many furniture suppliers offer a planning service (although this tends to be very different to our space planning service as we are happy to re-use your existing furniture), and there are many interior fit out companies, but again they are usually tied to their suppliers. Our independent status allows us to recommend the best possible solutions to your office design problems. We are able to recommend several furniture and fit out suppliers, and so we are able to obtain several quotes for you based upon our drawings and just a single site visit.

If you would like more information about our office design and space planning services, just give us a call.

Personalising your office reception

Your office reception is the first thing that visiting clients will see of your company and so it is vital that this area is kept up to date in order to make a good first impression. As well as looking good your office reception must be disability friendly, and this means that the standard tall reception counter is no longer such a good choice. Most modern reception counters now include a “cut away” section that is dropped to allow wheelchair users to access the counter, and it is also important to consider visually impaired visitors too, so raised glass surfaces may also be unsuitable.  A good counter design will include space for storage underneath, as well as plenty of room for the reception staff, as this will be their primary workplace and so needs as much attention as any other workstation.

It is important to consider soft seating in a reception as visitors will need somewhere comfortable to sit while waiting, and fairly firm tub chairs and two seater sofas are a good choice here. Large sofas tend not to work as well as single seaters, so in a reception with limited space 2 or 3 single seaters and a small sofa would work well. Leather always wears well, especially in high traffic density areas, and is a good choice over fabric for anywhere that has users that may be drinking coffee. 

Keeping visitors entertained whilst waiting is important, and a large flat screen displaying company information or a news channel is a god way of doing this. If there is the space an internet (or intranet) point can work well to allow visitors to catch up on work whilst waiting, and this can work well if combined as a touchdown counter with 2 or 3 stools that can double up as workspaces.

Receptions are the one area where you can go really bold with colours, or even use a modern lighting system to add changing colours to white walls. The key thing with any reception though is that it is designed with practicality in mind, and so must allow for adequate circulation space, especially as it is usually also the main fire exit. Call us to discuss how we can revamp your reception, and add a bit of life to your office!

The design and layout of your office space can be dictated somewhat by the type and quantity of office storage units that you have, and the more open your space, the better it works. There are several systems available to improve your current office storage, and more and more companies are looking to implement wall storage solutions. These are full height (floor to ceiling) storage cabinets that are usually fitted bespoke to your office space and ceiling height. They make the most of the space that is available, look very smart and can be locked for added security. Usually the top shelves tend to be used for archive storage as they are more difficult to reach, but they are a good way of utilising all the available wall space, leaving the open space in the office to be open. Another alternative is a rolling stack system; this is basically a series of rows of storage cabinets with a single moveable walkway. Through eliminating the need for a walkway between every row of cabinets, a system such as this vastly increases the density of the storage in a space. The walkway is moveable as all the rows of cabinets are attached to a roller system that allows them to slide from side to side, and these can be controlled either by a large crank handle, or an electronic push button system. This can be a particularly useful way to remove the storage from within the open plan parts of an office, allowing for a much more user friendly layout.

There are many other options available, particularly if you are looking to replace the old 4 drawer filing cabinets with a more modern solution, or looking to group together existing storage to improve your office layout; give us a call to discuss your options and see how we can help.

The human body was not designed to be seated for eight-plus hours a day, so it is not surprising that so many people have back problems at some time in their lives. There are so many different furniture manufacturers that offer office chairs that range in price from £20 to over £1000, so how do you know what is best for you and your staff? An ideal office chair should be flexible; it should have height adjustability to accommodate taller and shorter staff, an adjustable back rest giving gentle support whilst not pushing too hard against the spine, and ideally have an adjustable base (to allow tilting). Most basic chairs have adjustable height and back support, but few have the base tilt mechanism, however this function allows the pelvis to roll forward, and in the case of a free-float tilt mechanism, actually keeps the pelvis in subtle constant movement, which in turn keeps the spine moving. This helps to prevent the typical office chair slump and prevent the spine from locking up, leading to healthier backs and healthier staff.

If you would like ergonomics and furniture advice, give our staff a call and we can discuss how to keep your staff healthy at work.

Following are some changes and modifications that you can bring about to reduce carbon footprint:

Lighting
•    Use higher efficiency fluorescent lighting.
•    Use light sensors to turn the lights off automatically where/when the office is empty.

Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning
•    Programme the heating and cooling systems for optimum temperature.
•    Set the temperature a couple of degrees higher or lower, depending on the season.
•    Switch off the system during non-peak hours.
•    Try to use natural ventilation and heating.
•    Clean air filters and tune the system annually by a licensed contractor.
•    Replace old equipment with a more efficient system.

Office space planning
•    Redesign your office to make the most efficient use of space

Reduce, Recycle and Reuse
•    Separate bins for recycling cardboard, cans, paper and bottles.
•    Send notices via email or post them in a common area instead of printing individual copies.
•    Thoroughly edit all documents before printing.
•    Space efficient formats for letters, documents and memos will reduce paper usage.
•    Use printers that can print on both sides of the sheet.
•    Use dishes and utensils instead of paper plates and plastic cutlery.
•    Use an office design company such as Space Planning UK to redesign your office space by reusing your existing office furniture rather than just rushing out to buy new

The expense records and utility bills will provide an accurate record of the spending on water, electricity, and office supplies. This data will help in effecting necessary improvements for reducing the carbon footprint of an office.

Well, it really depends how you use it, who uses it and how your staff have been trained regarding its use. Often when an office reaches its capacity the office or facilities manager declares “we’ll put in hotdesks!”. Everybody panics, a whole load of fixed worker desks are removed and the ensuing fight for a Hotdesk each day leads to staff arriving earlier and earlier to try to bag a desk for the day. I’ve seen offices where the hotdesks are largely empty, but crucially each desk has been claimed for the day by a mysterious jacket on the back of the chair, and a laptop on the desk. The problem is that staff like to feel that they have a base and even if they are going to be in meetings all day, they like to ensure that they are still a part of the office.

So, how do you successfully implement a Hotdesking system? Well, the first stage is to assess exactly who uses your office and if they are suitable for working this way. Put simply, if the majority of your staff are based in the office every day, then Hotdesking won’t work for you. However, if you have staff that are mobile (such as a sales team), or staff that job share then they would suit a desk sharing system. Giving staff several options so that they don’t have to take a Hotdesk for the day just to have a base is also crucial to the system working. A good way of doing this is to introduce breakout areas (soft seating and informal meeting areas) and touchdown desking (a counter top with bar stools). If your staff see that whilst losing their fixed desk they gain more meeting space, and other areas that help them to do their job and communicate more effectively with their colleagues, then they are more likely to help make the system work.

There are also software systems available to help you to manage your Hotdesking, utilising a system know as “hotelling”. The way this works is to have an on-line booking system that allows staff to view a plan of their office, and then to book a desk for an hour, a day, or longer as required. These systems also allow staff to see which desks have already been booked, and who has booked them, allowing teams to be grouped together, or to allow you to avoid that really annoying loud bloke from Sales. We are able to advise if your office is suitable for a system such as this and we can also help to implement it for you.

If your office is stuck in a time warp, give us a call and we can offer practical advice as to how to improve it.

Jonathan Hall

In this blog I want to talk about the effect that technology has had on modern office design.

Most of Britain’s offices were designed and built before the rise to prominence of the personal computer. This meant that for each employee, all that was really needed was a desk, a chair, and somewhere to store their paperwork. This would have been an office without crashes, viruses and spam (well not the computer kind anyway), but equally without the internet, MSN messenger and Solitaire (what would they do all day?). However by the early nineties most desks had their own computer or terminal, and now it is unusual to find a desk without a PC.

The computerization of the office has meant a massive shift in the way that office space needs to be designed especially for older buildings without a raised floor (for electrical floor boxes). I have been to many offices that have hazardous trailing cables running from the wall to the desks in order to supply their desks with the necessary power and data; and yet there are simple ways of planning your office without risking tripping up your staff and the costly legal bills that follow – “no win, no fee; give us a go, what have you got to lose (except for your job)?”. The simplest way of getting the necessary power and data to the desk is by having your desks grouped in spurs running perpendicular to the wall. This way you can hide all the necessary cables at the back of the desks and in fact many modern desks now come with “cable management”. This should mean that you are less likely to be sued by staff that have been watching those adverts on daytime TV, whilst pretending to be sick, (although it doesn’t protect you from the dangers of slightly hot coffee).

Offices that do have floor boxes tend to come in two types; the type that were installed in the 70s and early 80s that are usually set in to channels cast in the concrete floor and the modern type that is a truly “raised floor”. The channel floor boxes can usually only be moved in one direction (along the channel) and so are not particularly flexible, whereas the raised floor type is a platform about 20cm above the concrete floor that in theory allow for the floor boxes to be moved pretty much anywhere (although many IT departments would like to claim otherwise). The raised floor solution gives you the flexibility to have desks in islands, spurs, as singles, or anywhere you want really.

In addition to the effects that computerization has had on the building, there have also been major changes necessary to the furniture within it. As staff started to need more and more desk space for increasingly large PCs and monitors, the standard office desk changed from a rectangular desk to the L-shaped corner desk. This was necessary to accommodate the large CRT monitors, and so gradually most offices replaced their furniture. Of course as soon as this had become the norm, the TFT flat screen monitor meant that all that extra corner space was no longer necessary, and this brought in the slightly curved Wave desk. However with the miniaturisation of the PC, many companies are now going back to the rectangular desk, and the increasing use of wireless technology means that things are likely to change further as it is now possible for many staff to share resources (such as printers). Many companies no longer use fax machines (we actually use a software fax which automatically emails us the fax rather than wasting paper), and this means no need for bulky faxes, no need to store paper and toner, and less of a requirement to print things out in the first place!

Looking ahead wireless technology will become the norm within the office, and as battery technology is improving soon we may be able to go have a situation where staff use laptop PCs that charge up on a docking rack overnight; allowing them to be truly wire free at their desks. Office design is becoming less constricted by technology and improvements in “natural light” lighting, climate control heating, and wire free computing are actually allowing technology to improve our office environments, rather than holding them back. We’ve re-designed many offices to include things like internet cafes, quiet zones, brainstorm rooms and funky soft seating, and companies are starting to see the benefits of having more than one working environment, and the ability to work anywhere.

If your office is stuck in a time warp, give us a call and we can offer practical advice as to how to improve it. Next time, I’ll be talking about the dreaded “hot-desking” and why it is not your enemy!

Jonathan Hall

Contact Us on 0845 166 8381