Office | Workplace Layouts
Work spaces are the primary spaces of an office that are used for common office activities such as computer work, phone calls, writing, reading, and other individual tasks. Organized differently in each independent office, work spaces can be classified as either open, shared, or private. Because office environments must be able to function well for many different tasks, a variety of layouts have been developed to support different types of work.
The factors to consider when designing an office layout include: lighting, color, circulation, culture, and purpose. These factors have significant impact on work productivity and participation, as well as the strength of a company’s identity. For example, natural light can cut down on costs, choice of color can dictate branding, and fluid navigation can maximize space utilization.
An open office is a workspace layout devoid of partitions, cubicles, or other means of separating people. It is seen as an answer to issues of communication and hierarchy by encouraging a collaborative workflow on equal ground; multiple people with multiple points of view around a variation of furniture.
The customary range for North American offices is 150-175 square feet (14-16.25 sq. m) of space per employee. Prior to this average found in most recent years, the range was determined to be around 200-250 square feet (18.58-23.23 sq. m) . Ultimately, the total amount of space needed to accommodate a business influences the range of that space per person as noted by startups and tech companies where open plan layouts are more the norm. These kinds of offices hold a range of 100-150 square feet (9.30-14 sq. m) per employee.
