Flexibility for interiors - office design

Nation's Business, March, 1987 by Robert Crawmer

Flexibility For Interiors

Flexibility is an important element in any business interior. But in the high tech office, it is crucial. To get the best return on today's investment in employees and equipment, an employer must make the environment quickly and easily adaptable to the change that comes with growth. A business interior must be as dynamic as its company.

Certainly the flexibility can be built into the interior's design to help a company make the most of its investment in an office. To do so, the office's design must address not only physical factors, but also attitudes and organizational values. Integrating all three successfully requires planning and effort.

Designers can choose from advanced products and concepts that can implement and enhance physical flexibility. Among them are:

Raised floors designed with cavities that accommodate the cabling and electrical wiring required by electronic equipment.

Carpet tiles that maintain warmth and acoustical properties while allowing easy acess to flat wire cables carrying power, data and communications.

Systems furniture with modular panels and work surfaces that can be moved around to make efficient use of available space. These work stations are prewired for electronic equipment.

Full-height movable walls that can accommodate hanging components.

Lighting that snaps in and out quickly and adjusts to suit the task and reduce glare.

Color in neutrals and monochromatic themes for backgrounds and major components that allow easy updating through strong accents, painting and corporate art collections.

But flexibility goes far beyond furnishings. Corporate attitudes about the work environment play an important role. In the past, work stations have been conceived as belonging to one person and having one place. They were also used to confer status. For maximum adaptability, consider these alternatives:

Work stations that reflect the demands of the job efficiently, yet allow personalization, so the occupant does not feel he has lost status in exchanging a private office for a bull-pen environment.

Standardized work stations, with fewer configurations and fewer components, encompassing a modular concept.

Office activity centers rather than cubicles, to give workers a home base station. They would move to centers with required equipment as needed. These should be designed in clusters to enhance daily communication.

Private offices blended with open areas, rather than all one or the other.

Costly equipment installed in shared areas, making it more accessible and productive.

Proper planning can ensure that the flexibility companies need is also cost-efficient. For example, relocating electrical and communication cables is expensive. But when the designer is involved from the beginning, he or she can determine the best distribution of power--through floor, ceiling, walls or flat wire cable.

The savings from such planning can be significant.

Moving an electronic work station can cost hundreds of dollars; when the environment is specifically designed to anticipate such relocations, the cost is reduced dramatically.

Such savings are inherent in a truly flexible environment. And when companies recognize their facilities as the most expensive capital asset they have, flexibility becomes paramount.