Open space for fun

The first open-type offices of Open Space appeared with the development of large-span frame structures, at the end of the 19th century.

Initially, they were open rows of tables and benches where employees performed operational tasks. In the 1950s, the Quickborner studio proposed a new concept of the “office landscape”, which saw the open office no longer as an assembly line, but as a tool for building cohesive teams by delimiting work areas with screens, furniture and plants.

The advantages of an Open Space office over a conventional office system are undeniable and proven by many years of practice:

• reducing the number of partitions allows you to accommodate more employees in the same area.
• it greatly increases the speed of communication among colleagues.
• co-location of line staff and managers has a positive effect on relationships by creating an atmosphere of equality.
• such an arrangement improves the quality of monitoring labor discipline (an additional important bonus).

According to a study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Design, in modern realities, only 40% of the staff work in the same workplace.

Simply put, the cabinet system is becoming a thing of the past, due to its low productivity compared to the Open Space office space.

Problems of an Open Space office and ways to overcome them
Of course, simply getting rid of partitions is not enough, and not any warehouse is automatically considered Open Space. By default, a space that is not divided by partitions means more noise, less personal space, monotony of rooms and more difficult navigation in the office. All these problems can be avoided, but only at the design stage.
The high level of noise in a large office is determined by the very nature of the sound – the wave, reflected from distant planes, returns late. Because of this, there is a hum in the room, which complicates communication.

To get rid of this problem allows the use of sound-absorbing materials and elements:

• acoustic panels;
• felt screens of workplaces;
• large upholstered furniture;
• curtains;
• perforated suspended ceilings, etc.

Regarding personal space in Open Space, everything here depends on the employee himself: sometimes a few family photos, a flowerpot, a pencil case are enough – and you already have a personalized workplace in front of you. At a higher level, this problem can be solved by planning tools, shaping the office as a sequence of zones with gradually increasing levels of privacy: from a noisy salon for a quick exchange of ideas to individual cells for concentrated work.

Monotony and complication of navigation are outdated stereotypes of early open offices.
To finally say goodbye to them, we initially form a heterogeneous interior structure, which allows us to create and alternate impressions at all levels of perception (shape, color, texture, texture, plastic, temperature, smell, sound).

It is very easy to solve any problems as quickly and efficiently as possible, saving resources and avoiding financial losses – just contact the ZIKZAK design studio for help.