Office Design

In any furniture fitout a visual office design of a project is essential so all parties are clear on the end goals of the fitout. Before you can go ahead with the overall office design the following items need to be considered:

• Health and safety requirements
• Storage Requirements
• Overall colour scheme
• Technology requirements
• Space functionality
• Space capacity

Health & Safety Requirements
When assessing the health and safety requirements of any working environment you must look at the activities being carried out. You then fit-out the office or space in accordance with the particular needs which you have determined. For example if you are fitting out a call centre, you will need to decide on the work space needed by each employee.

What is the required desks space?
Will the employee need writing space or are all office tasks computer based?
Will your employees require storage space?
How many employees will be accommodated in the space?
Do you need to allow for future expansion of workforce?
Will any meeting or training be carried out in the room?
What are the technology needs, will you have a photocopier or printer in the office?

Storage Requirments
With call centres you can have many employees in one space so access to a company network, cable management etc. is very important.

If you do not allow for adequate storage space, the employee may end up storing items under their desk causing them to sit incorrectly. So many different elements can affect the ergonomics of the workspace if not properly thought out in advance.

Overall Colour Scheme
Colour schemes are another important factor in fitting out an office.

• Do you have corporate colours that you need to adhere to?
• Have you looked at the psychology of colours and picked out a suitable room colour

In addition to corporate colours have you look at your brand identity, is your logo or business name included in the overall design of the office.

Space Capacity
Room capacity is another important element, there is no point in just having enough room for employees or products you also need to provide comfortable safe navigation space.

Once the above elements have been considered, the designer can now go ahead and do line drawings of the room. Office designs and line drawings are a great way of getting a basic layout and flow of the space without going into great detail. Once the basic office design has been agreed a 2d and 3d drawing can be developed.