Creating a successful workspace is no easy task. Fundamental questions need to be addressed such as:
what do people actually do in an office? What types of activities need to be facilitated? What kind of office spaces best support key activities?
Driven by economic pressures, advances in technology and changing work styles, organisations seem to have renewed their interest in new ways of working, wanting to create more efficient, flexible and dynamic work environments. This time it is not only IT or consultancy organisations, but a wide diversity of companies in the private, public and education sector. New office concepts seem, at last, to catch on and become mainstream phenomena.
As before, this renewed interest comes with exotic buzzwords, abstract concepts and rather extravagant claims for how office concepts will improve business performance.
Strategic objectives
At the start of any office design project it is important to raise a very basic question: What are we aiming to achieve with (re)development of a new work environment? Although many projects are initiated for practical reasons such as the lack of space or an outdated and worn interior, it is important to recognise and acknowledge the strategic potential of the physical work environment.
Obviously the main purpose of an office or work environment is
to support its occupants in performing their tasks and activities – preferably at minimum cost and to maximum satisfaction. Alongside this functional purpose, however, office buildings have an important social and symbolic function.
Read the full article online at FM World.