open office space design
5 Common Mistakes In Office Design
1 Cramped Layouts and Clearances
Companies move into new office space and suddenly realize that, despite looking great on paper, their office furniture won’t fit into the actual space. Usually, this is a result of the plan drawings presented by the realtor not aligning with the actual dimensions of your unique furniture and office equipment. When real-world accuracy of the dimensions is not considered when drawing out a new floor plan on paper, results can be catastrophic. Buyer’s remorse sets in, and then crisis management takes over. We design spaces which deal with all your clearance and dimension issues and create a real-world plan that gives you exactly the space you need.
2 Lack of Sound Deadening
Many offices today are open-concept designs, with hard surfaces like polished concrete floors and walls, exposed open ceilings and lots of glass. They look great, but the downside is increased noise levels. Voices bounce off the hard surfaces and soon everyone can hear every word of everyone else’s conversations. When noise overwhelms the workspace, productivity declines. Utilizing sound-deadening elements that help limit and absorb excessive noise. Adding fabric dividers between desks, suspending felt artwork from the ceiling, acoustical wall and floor coverings, and a drop ceiling helps to keep the noise levels down. Also, custom sound booth installations, known as phone booths, can offer staff a soundproof space for private conversations.
3 Poor Lighting
Often when people make modifications to their offices, they don’t think about their practical lighting requirements. Dim light makes it hard to see and strains the eyes. Florescent light can be overly harsh and can trigger migraines and other health issues. We engineer the lighting plan for the exact number of lumens you require in a space. We plan your computer monitor location and overhead lighting configuration to avoid shadows on your desk and to ensure the space is bright and inviting.
4 Inadequate Equipment & Storage Space
In many office environments, storage becomes a catch-all place to conceal clutter. Thinking critically about storage requirements and implementing esthetically appealing and practical storage solutions can provide time-saving functionality that boosts productivity and frees up space for other office uses. The same logic applies to office equipment. A large photocopier in a small room may work for making copies, but it leaves no room for supplies and no flat surfaces for collating documents. If someone has special job-related needs, it’s worthwhile to have a one-on-one private consultation to ensure the space works for them individually. But remember, while it’s great to have staff input for unique situations…it’s not practical to seek a company-wide consensus on every space being created.
5 Not Planning for Growth
When building out a new space, always consider your projected growth over the next 5 to 10 years. Are you acquiring enough space to suit the projected growth? How is the balance between private offices and open workspaces? What about meeting rooms? Do you have enough for onsite staff and for remote workers who may come in just to use a meeting room? While growth rates are hugely hard to predict, it’s better to err on the side of a little more than you need, than just what you think you need now.
At D.J. McGauley & Associates, we think about all the things you may not consider when designing your office.
Michael McGauley
DJ McGauley & Associates Inc.
Office 416-239-1931
Mobile 416-917-5389
Times Are Changing
As we all try to stay ahead of the many changes in our lives as we live through COVID-19.
Many companies are asking what do we do with our offices?
How do we bring people back to the office?
Should we bring people back at all?
What accommodations do we need to make to our space to make people feel comfortable to come back?
Should we reduce our office size?
How many staff should stay home and for how long?
These are difficult questions with not always a straight forward answer.
Many of our clients are making modifications to their work space to address social distancing. Others are reducing the real estate foot print planning to keep a portion of there staff working for home permanently.
If you need to modify your office space with a social distancing floor plan, and or furniture to accommodate your staff’s needs, or if you are looking to down size your space?
We can help!!
New space plans to accommodate social distancing
Modifications to your furniture i.e., adding panel separators to your existing furniture
Replacement furniture that helps to keep your employees safe
Moving to a new space that better severs your needs
We would be glad to be of service!
Stay safe!
Michael McGauley
DJ McGauley & Associates Inc.
Office 416-239-1931
Mobile 416-917-5389
More Creative Ways to Produce Privacy In An Open Office Space Environment
As much as the open office space is a preferred design with most of today’s companies, certain office activities still require a bit of privacy… or the opportunity to get loud without causing too much distraction for fellow employees. As a result, both furniture and office space design companies have come up with a variety of creative solutions to create “privacy” without compromising the open-concept design. We’ve covered a few of them in previous blogs — office pods, partial living walls, Everblock®and Tetris® furniture and walls, use and placement of storage cabinets…but here are a couple more options an organization can take into consideration:
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The Rotating Office Screens – A similar concept to vertical blinds, the rotating office screen is actually a series of double-panel slats, each of which rotates on its own pointed base plate. Each slat and base unit can easily be oriented into specific formations in relation to the other slat-base units to create an interesting decor within the open office space design while in “open” position. Once a private meeting is required, the same slats can be turned to the “closed” position, instantly creating a semi or fully private meeting area.
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Acoustic Office Screens – Not entirely new to the office space design world, acoustic office screen panels are now available in a variety of sizes, colours and shapes to offer flexibility and interesting decor to an ever-changing open office space environment. Each panel is designed to either stand on casters or on its own unique base, so they can be easily positioned to either add a design to a main
wall or create a semi-private space for individual or collaborative activities. In some cases, the panel shapes are irregular but can interlink to make a visually stimulating wall design or collaboration area. In other cases, the walls are stackable or can easily “nest” into one another, allowing for easy storage. What is even more advantageous is the acoustic office screens are made with soft materials designed to absorb sound, so they help lessen sound disturbances in an open office space environment.
The best part about these solutions is that they not only provide a “privacy” option to the open-concept office space design, but they also enhance flexibility within an open office space design.
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DJ Mcgauley and Associates Inc. is your Office Space Planning, Renovations and Relocation Project Management Company of choice. If a renovation or relocation of your office space is in your plans, please contact us to arrange a no-obligation site meeting. By the end of that meeting, you will know all that would be required to make your office renovation/relocation project a successful reality.
Call 416-239-1931, email [email protected] or visit our website for more information and to complete our contact form.
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References:
Urban Office, “Viswall Rotating Screen”, https://www.urban-office.com/office/office-screens/viswall-screen.html
Urban Office, “Wannabetree Screen”, https://www.urban-office.com/office/office-screens/wannabetree.html
Urban Office, “Alp Screen”, https://www.urban-office.com/office/office-screens/alp-screen.html
Office Pods– A New Solution to Privacy in an Open Office Space Design
Among the many office space design trends that currently exist, the open office space design has been the one popular design choice spanning several industries to encourage collaboration amongst staff and put all employees on an equal playing…or I should say, working field. But no matter how attractive the open office space design is to today’s organizations, there is always that looming need to create quiet areas or areas of privacy to handle regular business operation tasks such as making client phone calls meetings. Traditional offices closures and conference rooms have been the solutions to date, but a new solution is coming over the office space design horizon that more closely fits with the open office design concept.
Introducing office pods.
Office pods are self-contained portable sound proof enclosures created for the sole purpose of providing a quiet space or place of privacy in the midst of an open office space design.
Office pods offer several benefits:
- They offer flexibility to an office space design. Office pods are not enclosures that are fixed to a building. They are in fact portable or mobile, so like furniture, they can be placed anywhere inside or outside the office area—wherever best compliments the open office space design.
- Office pods are modular by nature, therefore can be dismantled, moved and reassembled from one office location to the next. They can even be easily extended to grow as your company grows.
- Office pods come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours, therefore can be creatively designed to complement the office space design theme of your organization.
- Office pods offer full and partial enclosure options. The full enclosure office pods, similar to an enclosed office or conference room, are ideal for business meetings, conference calls, and other operational tasks that require one’s full and uninterrupted attention. The partial enclosure office pods–sometimes referred to as office booths–offer opportunity for staff to still collaborate or find a quiet space work or relax in an open setting but with less noise interruption from surrounding office activities.
- Office pods can have a combination of clear, glazed and/or solid coloured walls to further compliment or enhance the office space design theme while still maintaining a balance between open office space design and the need to respect confidentiality.
So, if your current or future office space design is one of an open concept but you still want to allow for areas of quietness or privacy for your staff’s and overall business’ well-being, or your landlord forbids fixed reconstruction of an office space, adding office pods to your office space design could be the best solution.
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DJ Mcgauley and Associates Inc. is your Office Space Planning, Renovations and Relocation Project Management Company of Choice for the Toronto, GTA and surrounding areas. If a renovation or relocation of your 2,000 – 25,000 sq.ft. office space is in your plans, contact us to arrange a no-obligation site meeting. We guarantee that by the end of that meeting, you will know all that would be required to make your office renovation/relocation project a successful reality.
Call 416-239-1931, email [email protected] or visit our website for more information and to complete our contact form.
References:
Urban office Interiors, Office Pods, https://www.urban-office.com/podscreens.html
OfficePod, OfficePod Lift the Lid on Dead Space, http://www.officepod.co.uk/about-officepod/
Corporate Space Planning & Relocation Advice 