Furniture flexibility for the modern office

When it comes to specifying office furniture, many traditional ideas have been discarded. The formal arrangement of desks, screens, cubicles and separate meeting rooms is quickly becoming a thing of the past

Today, modern offices feature open-plan flexible spaces populated with informal collaborative workstations, acoustic office pods and soft seating. With the addition of break-out spaces, idea walls, chill-out zones, phone booths, and touchdown space, it’s safe to say that the trend is towards furniture that facilitates improved communication and collaboration

Today, the primary driver in the workplace is people. In order to meet the needs of workers and their modes of focus, a holistic approach is required to support new ways of working. As such, office furniture solutions will only succeed if they are flexible and can adapt

Things to consider when specifying furniture include: -

Privacy

- whether it’s visual, territorial or acoustic, it’s important that space is created for workers to enjoy privacy from distracting phones and co-workers, either on an individual or team basis

Collaboration

- Conference and meeting rooms are no longer in favour. Instead, there is a growing trend towards glass-fronted meeting pods that avoid the need for fixed partitioning and that help continue the flow of nomadic working patterns and collaboration

Display

- To facilitate communication and collaboration, it’s important that vertical surfaces feature throughout the workplace. Technology and connectivity is everywhere and almost integral to everything we do

Wellbeing

- when we feel well, we work well, and given that employees are the engines that keep companies growing, adapting, improving and innovating, employee wellbeing should be a key consideration when specifying office furniture.

Posted by Chris Johnson on 27 May 2016