How to choose an office space

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Here are a few things to consider when selecting an office space in Sydney.  Let start with shape.

Triangular shaped = potential problem.   There are many offices in Sydney and elsewhere in Australia that are odd shaped.   Commercial office space with acute corners (less than 90 degrees) can create some real issues with spatial planing.  There is not a lot you can do with tight angled corners, so the area just gets wasted unless you really think about the fit out design.

Circular offices also offer a similar problem, but you can get around it with some clever planning.   One particular iconic Harry Seidler designed Sydney building, Australia Square springs to mind.   In this case the prestige of being in such a location probably outweighs any design issues.

Lets face it Squares and Rectangles work best, think of your own homes and the furniture in them… you don’t have a triangular desk and a hexagonal coffee table do you?

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Sustainable Office Fitout, avoid the waste

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I was recently asked to present at a work shop on Fit Out waste put on by Sydney City Council.  There were many ideas bantered about the room from various interest groups, and while they meant well, it just seemed like it was more paperwork than real life practical and actionable things we can all do right now.

Here are a few of the more proactive things you can implement when you do your next office fit out

  1. Recycling is good, but reuse is the best, stop throwing away all that can easily be reused, this is not only limited to furniture.   If you can reuse the existing office partitions, then why not.
  2. Design… make sure your proposed office fit out is designed in such away that you don’t have unnecessary data cable lengths, and plumbing pipe work.  Maybe move that IT room or kitchen.   It will also work out cheaper.
  3. Modular, start thinking in modules and stop using bespoke commercial office furniture, it makes it so much easier to reuse in future fit outs and cuts down on waste at the factory end as believe it or not, these furniture modules work in with sheet sizes of board.

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Top 10 tips on designing an office fitout? part 4 of 4

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Today we wind up our blog post on our top 10 tips for designing an fit out with workstations and offices.Workstation office Sydney

The move these days is certainly towards an open plan commercial office.   Gone are the days when a fit out design would be filled with private offices.   Now you are far more likely to see an office workstation ratio closer to 1:10 or even 1:15.   It really does depend on the industry you are in however.

  • Workstations or “cube farms” as they are affectionately known are pretty much the norm and here to stay.   The work environment and collaboration have improved greatly as a result, with informal meeting and breakout areas now included in most open plan office designs.   There are many different workstation styles available, too many to list here so I will just direct you to our site if you want to see more.
  • Offices are still required in 9 out of 10 Sydney office fit outs.   They provide a place where private conversations can take place and also help with security of information (especially for HR).   They do come at a cost though, not only do they take up more room, they also affect Air Conditioning, Fire Services and Lighting.

That concludes our top 10 tips for commercial office fit out, if you have any questions post them on the blog and we will answer them in due course.

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Top 10 tips on designing an office fitout? part 3 of 4

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Storage space is a valuable commodity in Commercial office fit outs.

With rent being at such  premium in Sydney it can be hard to justify having too much area dedicated to storage solutions.   Similar to Parkinson’s law that says “work expands to fill the time allowed”, Rubbish also expands to fill the storage space allowed!   But that’s enough of my rant, lets look at just a few storage solutions for Sydney office fit outs.

Storage cabinets

  • Compactus storage solutions probably are the most “dense” storage solution available for the money.  They allow an enormous amount of paper work to be stored in a very small area, but there is a catch.   They are often heavier when loaded than most buildings are designed to handle.   It is essential that, firstly they are placed in the strongest points of the office fit out (often near columns or over beams) and that approval is obtained from a structural engineer before installation.
  • In desk storage is a great solution for files that need to be kept close to hand.   This normally involves small filing cabinets, mobile pedestals  shelves, slat wall storage or hamper units.   Most workstation systems are designed to accommodate this type of storage.
  • Off site, or scanned.   Basically anything you can do to not populate your commercial office fit out with filing cabinets, filled with documents that you will never or rarely need access to again.   As long as you can satisfy your needs for security of information, this could be a solution worth looking into.

That’s it for this week, next week workstations and offices.

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Supplying commercial office fit outs to the Sydney business community Visit us on Google+

Top 10 tips on designing an office fitout? part 2 of 4

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Continuing on from our previous blog on our top 10 tips for office fitout and design in Sydney, we will kick off with meeting rooms and boardrooms.Sydney meeting room

  • Placement of rooms – How will the meeting rooms be used, are they for internal meetings or for customers?   If they are for meetings with customers keep them near reception.   You don’t want to walk people through your workstation area to get to the rooms.
  • Furnishing the rooms – If you are a corporate Sydney office and you think you can get away with a $200 melamine table in your meeting room, I’m sorry to say this but you’re wrong.  You’re not impressing your customers at all, however you don’t have to break the bank.   There are cost effective solutions with integrated Audio Visual systems that are affordable.   Contact us to discuss your solution.
  • Privacy – Most Sydney office meeting rooms and boardrooms require privacy, both in terms of sound and visual.   This is an often overlooked area.   Plaster partitions and glass walls can be sound rated effectively, and film should be applied to glass walls to hide what’s going on inside the room.   Light fittings should be changed from large metal trough lights to small LED lights so sound cant “leek” out.   Return air grills that use the ceiling plenum as return air should have boxes fitted on top with a length of insulated flex to help dampen sound transmission.
That’s it for part 2, look out for part 3.

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Top 10 tips on designing an office fitout? part 1 of 4

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Having been personally involved in thousands of Sydney office fit outs over the years, I have seen the best and the worst of layouts.    I have been called in to fix more poorly designed fit outs then I care to remember.    When you look at the plans, the mistakes just jump off the page.   It really makes you wonder how they got past the design phase at all.office fit out breakout

This is part 1 of 4 in our top 10 tips regarding office fit out design:

  • Reception – Think about how your receptionist is going to function.   What tasks will you be asking of your receptionist?   How much room will they need to do their job?   Will they feel isolated from the team if they are out there alone?   Will they be asked to bring tea or coffee to your guests, if so how far away is the kitchen?
  • Waiting areas… obviously near reception, you probably wont want the public to see your back office though.   Consider your waiting area seating, if you are a personal tax accountant then a 3 person couch is great for mum, dad and the kids.   If you cater to professionals and three men turn up for a meeting , 1 may sit but 2 most certainly will stand.

Next week we will continue with meeting room office design and placement tips for Sydney commercial offices.

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10 questions to ask fitout companies

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A commercial office fitout is a once in a 5 year event for most companies, that might Office waiting areaseem like a short time, unless you have to live with a problem for the next 5 years.

Below are our top 10 questions to  ask fitout companies before you engaged them to build your office fitout.

  1. Can we see an example of a fitout you have done previously, and can we talk to your previous client about the experience?
  2. Will the quotation be fully itemised?, and I don’t mean a line item that says “Workstations” with a dollar figure after it.  You will want to know how much per office desk and how much per metre of plaster wall for example.
  3. What is your policy on variations?   Our policy is if you don’t ask for a change then you wont get a variation.   Make sure they aren’t intending to leave things out just to win your work, only charge you at a later date.
  4. WHS (the new OH&S since Jan 2012) and Insurances, make sure you only choose from company’s who are fully insured, are Pty Ltd and have compliant Work Health and Safety systems in place.
  5. Design ability, can they quickly do accurate in house designs, or will this have to be outsourced at great cost?
  6. Will they assist you with council or authority approvals?
  7. Have they considered all the essential services?   When a plaster or glass wall is built in can have a dramatic effect on paths of travel, fire, exit/emergency lighting and Air Conditioning… don’t let this be one of the variations from point 3!
  8. Does your proposed office seating meet AFRDI standards, not every office chair is suitable for use in a commercial office space, you are responsible for your staff and their posture.
  9. Where does the furniture you are being offered come from, if you have the choice… buy Australian!
The 10th point is really something you need to ask your self, and that is, what’s your gut feel, how confident are you in their ability to do the job.    If all you wanted was office furniture you could buy that on line.   One of the major reasons to use a fitout company is for the service, the experience and the advice.
We are happy to chat any time if you need help, drop us a line

 

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Supplying commercial office fit outs to the Sydney business community Visit us on Google+

How many square metres per person for an office relocation?

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A question we are often asked is how many square meters per person do we need for an office relocation?

The web is filled with office space calculators, one thing that I have found over time is that they are all different, calculating anything from 6 m2 per person, all the way up to 20 m2.Office Space Workstation

There are many factors to consider when determining the space you will require for your Sydney office fitout:

  • How large are your workstations and offices?
  • How many meeting rooms are required, and how large are they?
  • Office to workstation ratio?  Office’s take up much more space than workstations.
  • Size of reception and waiting area.
  • Size of facilities and Comms rooms areas.
  • Shape of the building.   This is an often overlooked one, simply put you can be a lot more economical with a square or rectangular building than you can with a triangular or round one.
  • Actual usable office space vs Net Lettable Area, we have a previous blog on this which we encourage you to look at called “What is Net Lettable Area or NLA” dated 19th March 2012.
  • Company policy… your company may have standards already set in place.  If you are from the government sector then you almost certainly do.   We had an article published in Government News a couple of year back on this.
  • Size of breakout and kitchen areas?

If you want a rough figure that you can use for how many square meters for a standard commercial office fitout, I would say 13 – 14 m2 per person is about right in most cases, however the only way to be sure is to have concept plans drawn up.

We can provide this service, just contact us and we will walk you through the process.

 

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The price to fit out a boardroom with an audio visual system?

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There are many misconceptions in the commercial office community about the actual cost of an effective Audio Visual set up.   Many people are under the impression that the price for an Audio Visual Boardroom fit out would be between $20,000 – $30,000 for a system that will suit their needs.   For most offices this simply isn’t the case. Using our extensive IT experience we can install a fully integrated system for between $2,000 and $5,000 .Boardroom audio visual

Let’s have a quick look at the basics of an audio visual system that is both cost effective and efficient, and frankly more than sufficient for most boardrooms.

Firstly lets consider if you even need a projector, the simplist Audio Visual system is a “large” flat screen TV, an HDMI cable and a laptop.   This could be done for  a few thousand dollars or so if you are having the cabling terminated at the wall, a bit more if it is terminating at a boardroom table.

If you do need a projector, its not really that much harder.   In recent fitouts we have been using the latest technology with special converters that send the audio / visual signal over cost effective cat 5 data cable from the ceiling to the wall or the boardroom table with great success.

Every client’s need is different and every boardroom is different, so we tailor Audio Visual systems to suit.    Contact us before you talk to anyone else for an Audio Visual solution.

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Supplying commercial office fit outs to the Sydney business community Visit us on Google+

Office Furniture – The true cost of an office chair?

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A better question might be “How much is your health or spine worth?”.Office task seating

When buying office furniture you need to consider the needs of the person who will be using it.   If you have just signed a lease for 5 years and your staff will be sitting at their workstations or desks 5 days a week 8 hours a day, then don’t expect that a $100 imported task chair is going to do the job.

Chairs that fall into this price bracket have their place but I am sure when you take the time to consider the facts, a modern Sydney commercial office space just isn’t one of them.

So how much is the minimum spend for an office chair?… the answer is that it varies from person to person and job to job.    But I can say this much:

  1. Always try to purchase Chairs that have a large Australian made content, if for no other reason to keep your money here, where it is needed.
  2. Look for seating that has an AFRDI rating suitable for the use you are planing, for task chairs we don’t like to go below level 6.   AFRDI is an independent Australian furniture testing body, Google it!.
  3. Always ask for demonstration chairs that you can sit in for a while to test them out, a chair may seem comfortable when you first sit in them, but your view may change a few hours later.

If you would like more information on seating or office furniture then please don’t hesitate to contact us, we will answer your questions and find a solution for your furniture needs.

 

 

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