Glass Partitions – Are They Always the Best Choice?

As a leading supplier and fitter of glass partitions in the London area we receive lots of enquiries about the possibility of installing glazed partitioning in offices. Our clients' interest is understandable as glass partitioning offers an extremely attractive option, making any office space feel more contemporary and aesthetically appealing.

However, the benefits of using glass partitions goes far beyond visual aesthetics – and in some cases they may not be the right choice at all, depending on a range of other factors. So here we take a closer look at the different ways glazed partitions can be used effectively – and where use of solid office partitions may be a more appropriate choice.

Why Glass Partitions?

Partitions can help solve a range of office design problems including:

Visual privacy – Reducing visual distractions for employees engaged on projects requiring concentration, or for private client or personnel meetings.

Sound privacy – Reducing day to day noise levels or to allow confidential meetings, if double glazed.

Zone definition – Having different areas for different work teams or projects, or for special uses such as quiet zones, break out areas, lunch areas, printer rooms and so on.

Creating rooms – Enclosed spaces within an open place space such as private offices or meeting rooms.

Improving aesthetics – Updating the look and feel of an office but without making major structural alterations.

While glass partitions can answer many of these issues, it may not be the most suitable option for all situations – so let's take a closer look.

When to Use Glass Partitions

Glazed partitions are the top option in the following situations:

Retain natural light while providing visual privacy – Here frosted glass partitions provide a good solution. The glass allows the light through while a manifestation (frosting effect) obscures the view and reduces visual distraction.

Retain natural light while providing basic sound privacy – Glazed partitioning gives occupants privacy to discuss matters privately, while also reducing noise distraction for others outside the partitioned area – although glass is not the most attenuating of materials and will allow through some sound. An additional level of visual privacy can be added using partial manifestation. This solution retains the visual benefits of the open plan office (people can see each other and have a sense of being part of a larger team) but solves the sound / distraction issue.

Multi use room requiring privacy sometimes – Where privacy is required only for certain uses, Priva-lite glass partitioning offers an ideal solution. Occupants of the space can opt to switch the glass to opaque for meetings requiring higher levels of confidentiality. This might apply to a room used for general meetings most of the time but which also doubles as a private meeting room when needed.

Create a cutting edge look – Glass offers the most up to date look and combines well with just about any other material including metal and timber (see image below) and, because it is colour neutral, will blend with any colour scheme. An added benefit is that glass creates a contemporary look, which isn't going to go out of fashion in a couple of years, so it is a good long-term choice.

Flexible solution – It is common for many companies to reorganise quite frequently in order to respond to changes in customer demand, or to focus on new projects. Demountable partitions – either glass or solid – offer a flexible solution, allowing partitions to be removed and reconfigured as required within the space, without requiring big structural changes to the building.

Enhancing Corporate Identity – Companies in leased offices can often be limited with regard to installing signs or decorations that would permanently change the office space – and will usually be liable for making good any such changes back to the original colour and condition. Internal, demountable partitions offer a way for businesses to introduce corporate branding into the office design while minimising any changes to the permanent structure. Frosted partitions can incorporate any design that may be required, including company logos, lettering or images to achieve a subtle branded effect.

When Not to Use Glass Partitions

The range of visual options available for glass partitions (frosting, using switchable glass etc) makes them a flexible option for a wide range of uses as part of an office interior design. But there are, nevertheless, some situations where they are not the best choice:

Privacy – When you need high levels of personal privacy, both visual and auditory, solid partitions are the way to go. Full privacy may be needed in office areas for a variety of reasons including private client meetings, personnel interviews, and so on. And nobody wants to see glass walls used for a washroom!

Security – It is usually prudent to hide from view equipment or stock which has value or which has restricted access. This might include stock rooms, server rooms, rooms storing confidential files or any other area which the business does not want to draw unwanted attention to.

Hiding Clutter – It is sometimes aesthetically desirable to hide some things from view within the office environment. We would not recommend glass doors for a storage wall or store room, for instance, as this will simply put your office clutter on display. Similarly, there is little point in using glass partitioning to provide an outside view if that view is itself rather unattractive.

Glass Partitions from GDL Interiors

In short, glass partitioning is popular for a reason – several reasons in fact – but it needs to be used correctly to achieve the best visual and functional outcomes.

At GDL we can provide all types of solid and glass partitions as part of a new office refurbishment or fitout for businesses throughout London, Essex and East Anglia. More importantly, our 30 years of experience in the office design business means we can provide expert design advice about the best type of office partitioning to use for your particular requirements. Find out more about glass partitions here.

The Hidden Office – 5 Important but Invisible Aspects of Office Design

What do you think of when you say "office design"? You might think of sleek new desks, rearranged partitions, perhaps some new colours, a new reception area and a fresh carpet. But, as vital as these things are, some of the most important aspects of new office fit outs or refurbishments is what you never see.

At GDL Interiors we pay close attention to how a new office looks – the impression it makes on your visitors and the positive message it sends to your employees. But we also take care of what goes on behind the scenes. Here we shine the spotlight on 5 of the most important, yet invisible aspects of an office design.

1. Cabling
Power and data are essential services to just about any office setup. Whether you're a London multimedia company storing and transferring Terabytes of data every day, or whether you just need a basic internet connection for email, there are very few businesses that don't depend on computers and data connections to function. All this means a need for power and data cables to just about every employee's workstation, from the CEO to the office temp. Then there are phones, printers and photocopiers, not to mention spare power sockets for charging mobiles and laptops. While going wireless is a solution for some, this won't work for everybody, depending on the level of reliability and bandwidth they require.

Cabling presents two main challenges when designing an office. The first is capacity – ensuring enough sockets and connections for the number of people and devices, with spare capacity for future growth, catering for visitors, and so on. Insufficient sockets can lead to employees using expansion boards, which can put excessive load on the system, looks unsightly and can even be a fire hazard. It can also lead to staff having to regularly unplug equipment in order to find a spare socket – which can mean inadvertently turning off PC's, servers or other vital kit, with potential loss of work and time.

The second challenge is appearance. Lots of cables always looks a mess and can undermine the professional, uncluttered appearance that your new office interior design is designed to achieve. At GDL we can advise on the capacity of power and data sockets required to take account of your future requirements, as well as making sure that cables are suitably hidden from view within or behind furniture.

2. Storage
All offices need a certain amount of storage space. Even if all your files and data are fully computerised (and almost everybody has some paperwork that they need to store locally, either as back up or for everyday reference purposes) you will probably still need storage for stationery supplies and employees' personal belongings.

At best, a lack of storage will lead to clutter and detract from the aesthetics of your new office. At worst, it will impact on the productivity of your staff if they can't easily find the paperwork or items they need to do their work.

At GDL we work with clients to ensure they have the quantity and type of storage they need, to aid productivity and to maintain a good impression. As well as thinking about the quantity of storage, we'll consider where it should be positioned for maximum efficiency and how it can be integrated into the overall layout and design. 

One of our clients' favourite solutions is to use built in wall storage. This maximises storage capacity but takes up minimal floor space, and the frontage can adopt a variety of colours and designs to complement the overall decor (see example image below). 

3. Energy Efficiency
Employees and visitors may have no way of knowing how energy efficient your office is – but your finance department certainly will. As well as doing your bit to minimise carbon emissions, designing your office to be energy efficient can mean year on year cost savings for your business. But being energy efficient requires proactive design decisions in a number of areas including lighting and heating systems, most of which are best implemented as part of an overall sustainable office design. For instance, a zoned heating or lighting system allows staff to have higher control over when or if they need additional heat or light, instead of unnecessarily heating or lighting areas that perhaps don't need it; but the electrical and switching system required to allow this needs to be wired in behind walls or ceilings and is ideally carried out as part of an office refurbishment.

What's possible for each company will vary according the particular premises they occupy and the type of business they operate. So part of GDL's service includes an assessment of your current premises and a set of recommendations outlining what's possible.

4. Safety
However your office looks and however productive your staff may be, there is one thing that your office has to be: safe.
Office furniture has to comply with a raft of safety regulations, from fire resistance to weight bearing stability.
Not only that, the way the office is laid out (space between workstations, width of passageways and doors etc) all have to abide by current DDA legislation to ensure ease of access for disabled staff, customers or visitors, as well as building regulations relating to fire escape routes and so on.
Your employees might not notice it, but a few centimetres more or less can make the difference between being compliant and not.

At GDL we have been designing office interiors for over 30 years and are fully familiar with all such regulations and ensure that safety issues are dealt with as a matter of course as part of the overall office design.

5. Space Planning
Perhaps the most invisible aspect of office design is the planning that went into it. Expert office space planning is what makes the difference between a purely cosmetic office refurbishment and a refit which really meets your needs and supports your people to do their work in the most efficient way. 

As well as considering the number of staff you have now, we can factor in future growth fluctuations at different times of the year, how different teams need to work together, how much private or meeting space is required, whether the space needs to be flexible to cater for different projects or reorganisations, and so on.

Factoring in all these hidden elements, while also creating a visually appealing environment requires a combination of technical expertise and creative flair – so it's important to choose a fitout company that can handle both.

Office Design London – Click here or call us on 01376 515243 to find out more about our design and fitout services. 

Commercial Office Interiors – 5 Things Google Got Right

Google's famous (or perhaps infamous) workspace design has caused a great deal of controversy and debate in the world of commercial office interiors. London and UK companies are divided about whether this is a style to be emulated as forward-thinking and inspirational, or avoided as extravagant nonsense.

As leading contractors carrying out new office fit outs and refurbishment in the London area, we are very much in touch with what organisations really need from their office designs. So we have taken some time to reflect on what Google got right, and how this can benefit our clients. We've picked out 5 key lessons that we think designers of commercial office interiors can usefully take forward into their designs:

1. Unique Spaces Encourage a Sense of Belonging

The bigger a company gets, the less you can rely on direct personal relationships to make a workforce feel like a team, all pulling in the same direction to meet organisational goals. Putting workers in individual cubicles that all look the same is a recipe for alienation, making people feel separate and less likely to feel a sense of belonging and connection with others, or with the company. Innovative and visually striking office design which feels significantly different to anywhere else, helps to send a signal that says: "Everyone within this space is connected".

What this means for other companies is that simply copying design elements from Google won't work – employees will just feel like they are working for a copycat Google. Instead the goal should be to find a design which is distinctive and unique to your company, whether that's in terms of colour scheme, materials or layout. For instance in our example below, the effect is nothing like Google – but is totally distinctive in its own way, giving a sense of identity to the building and to its occupants.

2. Attracting Post-Recession Talent

Clive Wilkinson, the architect-designer behind Google's workspace transformation has said: "One of the biggest motivators for creating good workspaces is being attractive to people you want to hire."

UK businesses – and particularly those in London – are steaming ahead and driving the economic recovery, especially in areas requiring high levels of individual creative talent, such as design, media, finance, software and engineering. To ensure their long term success, companies have to hire the best people and then keep them for as long as possible. In an age when the youngest talent can change jobs as often as they change their smartphone, companies who want to be able to "take their pick" of the best talent need to excite prospective candidates and appeal to them as an exciting place to work.

As the recovery beds in and recruiting key skills gets more difficult, an innovative office interior, combined with other progressive employment policies, may even start to be a factor helping to reduce staff "churn".

3. The Use of Glass Partitions

The use of glass partitions was a key element in transforming the old Google offices from "cubicle land" to a space which helped to connect people visually. Even in a conventional office space, glazed partitioning adds a sense of modernity and provides a level of soundproofing between zones, to aid productivity. Glass also makes best use of available natural light to brighten and lighten interior spaces. Clever use of glass manifestation (such as below) lets in the light and allows staff to get a sense of what is happening elsewhere in the space, while the frosting helps to retain a level of privacy.

4. Use of Colour

Using colour is a quick and easy way to make a space feel unique and stimulating, even if the furniture and layout are fairly conventional. Indeed, the use of bold colour is one of the most immediately obvious characteristics of the Google workspace and is often what companies have most trouble embracing – especially if their company is in a sector where stability and restraint may feel more "fitting" to their company image.

But it is possible to use colour in a way which helps a workspace to feel modern and cutting edge, but without undermining more conservative organisational values. For instance, in the image below, a single bold accent colour is combined with shades of white, chrome and grey, which creates a look which is understated but far from dull.

5. Embodying the Brand

Apart from providing employees with somewhere to sit and work, the next most important thing that any office space has to do is put them in the right frame of mind for doing work that expresses the values and standards of the organisation. These values then find their way into the ideas, products and services those employees create, which are then experienced by the company's customers.

Perhaps the reason that Google's office design provoked so much controversy is that it exactly reflected the tech giant's brand values: original, maverick and cutting edge. Companies with similar brand values loved Google's offices; those with different brand values hated it. So what Google got right here, was to allow their offices to fully express their core brand values.

GDL Interiors have wide ranging experience of creating high quality commercial office interiors for companies in London and the South East. We combine practical, functional design with creative flair to help organisations of all kinds achieve a workspace which promotes productivity as well as enhancing their brand.

Commercial Office Interiors London – Click here to see our portfolio.