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.
