Flex office spaces are becoming increasingly popular around the world, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees are no longer expected to work out of the office full time, thus employers are looking to downsize. To do so, they need their new office design to be as efficient as possible and tailored to the demands of their employees.
Commercial designers are confronted with a new challenge: creating workspaces that cater to various teams and jobs while remaining homogeneous enough to be used by everyone. We give flex office space design advice in this post to help commercial designers navigate this modern design route.
What exactly is a flex office?
Teams can operate in a variety of different spaces in a flex office environment. There are no fixed workstations or allotted seats. The goal is to allow employees the freedom to do various jobs at locations that make the most sense for them. This is usually accomplished by separating work regions, often known as "zones."
The advantages of having a flex office space
Because everyone is in one central area — a "hub," if you will - flexible office spaces encourage collaboration between various departments. There are fewer boundaries between workstations, allowing various teams to engage with one another, but there are still delineations to ensure that their workflows are not disrupted. Better visibility and collaboration between departments encourage creativity, resulting in new ideas that would not have been born otherwise.
Commercial designers should follow these 5 flex office space design tips.
1. Create discrete work areas
When we talk about various work zones, we're talking about parts of the office with specific functions. Creating a "silent zone," for example, allows employees who need uninterrupted concentrate time to work without distractions. A soundproofed meeting pod allows employees to take a call or have a meeting without disturbing others. Multiple team members can join together in a collaborative zone to brainstorm or work on a project.
2. Construct project rooms
Project rooms are locations where groups of people can collaborate on projects. They are typically larger than other parts of the office to allow each contributor to focus on their respective responsibilities while also being able to sit together and hold talks if necessary. Individual workstations, whiteboards (or fancy glass markerboards), and other amenities are available in project multifunctional project room environments that provide teams with informal conversation corners, shared work surfaces (think several smaller tables spread out instead of one large conference table), individual workstations, and whiteboards (or fancy glass markerboards).
3. Provide seating that is spaced out
If your customer requests that you consider social distancing when creating their flex office space, you can accomplish so by distributing seating arrangements throughout each work area. A huge sofa with numerous armchairs, for example, can be a wonderful meeting location for a small group while yet allowing everyone to maintain a safe distance. Instead of sitting elbow-to-elbow at one enormous table, several shared work surfaces can create social distancing since people will be spread out across multiple tables, working on tasks in smaller groups.
4. Select furniture that is versatile and comfortable
A flex office environment necessitates furniture that is adjustable, comfortable, and collaborative. This can be accomplished by using height-adjustable desks (because no two people are the same size), standing desks, tables with casters that can be easily moved around and reconfigured to suit various purposes, mobile sofas, reclining armchairs, and, most importantly, ergonomic chairs. Various
best online furniture stores provide such sort of things. Employees are more likely to spend time at work and collaborate if they are comfortable.
5. Set up workstations in the open air
If your customer has outdoor space, make the most of it by developing an outdoor office environment for them. It not only helps enhance employee health, happiness, stress levels, and general productivity, but it also helps improve social distancing. You can utilize the same plan you used for the interior work areas, but you'll need to choose the correct materials for outside use to endure the elements.