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Office Environments, Layouts, Standards and Guidelines

As a contractor or architect, it’s up to you to design a space for your clients that is well suited to the client’s needs and improves the quality of their experience existing in the space. Getting contracted to design office spaces is not always easy, especially today with a rapidly evolving definition of what an office environment could be. Nowadays, most new offices are multidimensional and act as a home away from home- with kitchens, games, and lounge areas that simulate the essence of a living room.

These workspaces are meant to cater to the worker’s needs, boost morale, enhance production, and increase continuity and communication amongst coworkers or “team members”. By designing a thoughtful and considered layout, and installing the right framework, you’ll be able to craft an innovative working environment that your client and their employees will love. Below, we’ve outlined some things to keep in mind during the design process. Much needed rooms, spatial separation, and exciting elements to employ may help inspire your blueprints.

Office Open Floor Plans

Today, open floor plans have become the new staple or standard in office design. More and more companies are recognizing that allowing their employees to freely communicate, work together and experience closeness actually increases productivity and team morale. Open floor plans also increase visibility, natural light, and breathability throughout the office environment. By starting off your design with an open plan, you make room for a lot of inventive spatial solutions and targeted rooms that will add intrigue and excitement to the space.

bright workplace with many glass divided rooms

Office Phone Booths/Call Rooms

A good way to allow for some spatial separation and privacy is to introduce phone booths or “tiny rooms” into the open swath of expansive office space. While these glass barriers are not specifically soundproof, they do provide a spatial barrier that lessens noise and provides increased privacy. This way, when a team member has a long call (or a loud voice) they can quickly step into these quiet spaces and not feel guilty about distracting nearby workers. A new poll by Udemy and Toluna showed that 80% of workers admit to being sonically distracted while at work.

 “Office noise is the second most cited workplace disturbance, with seven out of ten respondents citing noise as a top bother in their day-to-day workflow” (statista.com).

Outside influences on employees’ working environment take a toll on productivity and cause employees a cumbersome mental reset every few minutes. A great solution to introduce with these call booths is to install sliding door room dividers for the call booth so as to save space in an already tiny enclosure, while creating a stylish design that increases the office aesthetic. Our solutions divide the space, curtail foot traffic and provide visual privacy.

 

Bonus Yoga / Stretching / Meditation Room

A new trend amongst trendy office spaces is offering a yoga or meditation room. People become seriously fatigued while sitting for too long a time in uncomfortable office chairs day in and day out. Not only is a desk job physically grueling on a person’s body, but it also takes a mental toll. By designing workers space for some healthy breaks to stretch, breathe, recenter and improve their physical health, you effectively boost productivity, increase mental capacity and increase contentment amongst a workforce. Consider installing sliding glass barn doors for this room – it will enhance the overall look of the room and offer an artistic flourish your client will love. What’s more, you can choose from six different glass opacities to best suit your client’s needs. For the yoga room, perhaps a more opaque glass finish would be the ideal choice, so workers can stretch and meditate while enjoying a bit of privacy. 

conference room with sliding glass door wall, some panels opaque

Think Tank / Conference Room

While open floor plans are a great way to achieve integration, cohesion, and an overall team mentality, any office environment should come equipped with a full-size conference room for important/private meetings and presentations. Some like to think of these rooms as productive think tanks. Not providing one would be a big detriment to any business. People need to be able to gather around a table, bounce ideas off each other, check-in on progress, etc. To engineer a stylistic balance of privacy with visibility, use glass sliding door room dividers to integrate a conference room amongst the rest of the open floor plan. This way, you’ll provide a “separate yet together” feel that your clients will thoroughly enjoy.

Private Offices

Of course, you’ll want to design your office space with at least one to three private offices to provide distinction for the company CEO, manager or owner from the general workforce. By using floor-to-ceiling glass wall partitions and interior sliding doors, you’ll provide enough spatial separation and privacy while assimilating the rooms into the vast open space. An office with four solid walls on each side doesn’t exactly say “teamwork” the way it should. Rather, it segregates the people below and can make employees feel detached from their bosses or those higher up than them. As the designer, take it upon yourself to create a positive, integrative working environment that will improve the working conditions of employees and drive the business in the right direction.

Our glass and aluminum partitions are recyclable and perfect for green construction projects. They also assist architects with earning LEED points which is another selling point when contracting clients. Taking into consideration general layout, office partitions, the use of glass, and introducing inventive spaces, you’ll successfully craft a product that your clients will celebrate each day they come into work. An office should be a productive home away from home. Consult the experts in space optimization and check out Space Plus, a division of the Sliding Door Company.

Have a look at our products gallery for inspiration and product images. Schedule a call with one of our knowledgeable professionals to get a free quote and other information on our many available solutions. Simply find a location near you and ensure your office design a success!

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Shut-downs Present the Perfect Opportunity to Remodel

Last week, California announced another round of restaurant closures due to a recent and troubling spike in COVID case numbers. This comes as the second wave of mandatory restaurant shut-downs, which will result in widespread job loss (both temporary and long term) and will be financially devastating for millions. And while the next few weeks will be exceptionally difficult for both employees and employers, there might just be a silver lining.

This is because customers, clients, and employees will be gone from the business over the next few weeks, allowing you (the owner) a chance to finally make those restaurant upgrades you’ve been putting off for years. Without the ability to serve in-person dining, it’s time to start thinking about the direction you would like to see your restaurant move towards. If you own a food or beverage establishment in a top California city, chances are you’ve been competing with some of the best in the business. And these top restaurants are not only judged by the quality of the food and service, but also the ambiance and aesthetic. With so many competing restaurants to choose from, you have to make your business stand out and pique the interest of passersby.  And if you haven’t put work into your business in over a decade, chances are it’s due for a serious interior upgrade. Luckily, Space Plus, A Division of the Sliding Door Company has the expert know-how and innovative ideas to bring your environs into the modern moment.

To help get you started, we’ve provided a few interior design tips and tactics for your new project.

Expand the Space

These days, we tend to feel most at ease within wide-open spaces and sleek open floor plans that ooze contemporary modernism. And this considered style doesn’t just apply to restaurants but also is integrated into workspaces, retail shops, and homes. The truth is, the decade-long transition to a more light-filled, open-air environment creates a breathable space and allows your patrons to feel included in the greater experience. Providing easy interior visibility broadens the space and creates a kinship between patrons. A great way to achieve expansive interiors is to adopt a minimalist approach and reduce the number of physical barriers and even tables within the space. Though if your restaurant requires a few physical barriers within the dining area, we suggest installing beautiful glass wall partitions or Glass Room Dividers to achieve this medium. This way, you can enjoy some spatial separation between tables or entire dining rooms, all while retaining an open floor plan and the same visibility.

Modernize it

Lately, the interior design industry is promoting the use of natural textiles, rustic materials and timeless pieces. Juxtapositions of natural elements such as wood with metal, or glass paired with earthen materials like stucco create a fascinating narrative for your customers to appreciate while they dine. Integrate metalwork with comfortable opposites like velvet, linen or corduroy to use for upholstery like seat cushions. Also, don’t forget to update your bathrooms to reflect the rest of the renovation. Pair modern Sliding Glass Bathroom Doors with rustic concrete floors and finish the room off with worldly wall textiles. Women in particular will truly appreciate the extra effort

Now that you have a springboard of ideas, it’s time to jump into the interior remodeling. After all, you may only have a few weeks until restaurants are allowed to reopen! By implementing these spatial solutions into your interior space, you’ll be able to compete with your surrounding restaurants and attract the customers you’ll need to emerge from this crisis unscathed. For more ideas, inspiration, and related blogs, head over to Space Plus, a Division of The Sliding Door Company for all the best in commercial space-saving solutions! From Bi-Fold doors to Swing Doors, wall dividers to suspended systems, Space Plus has it all! Schedule a free consultation with one of our showroom professionals and order your very own custom Qubi Glass partitions today!

SP 1046 – A

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Bringing Your Office Into The Roaring ‘20s With The Latest in Glass Partition Technology (the perfect Holiday gift for your company)

The Holiday Season is upon us, and it’s the last of the twenty-teens! It’s time to treat yourself and your organization to an upgrade. Our working environments are about to start evolving, and it’s important to stay ahead of the latest interior design and thinking to stay competitive. This is where we come in. Space Plus, a division of The Sliding Door Company, are leaders in cost-effective and innovative interior office and home products to help you navigate the design trends of the 2020s. Our professional experts are always available to provide you with factory-direct, glass solutions to ensure that you, your clients, or your fellow inhabitants will feel safe and comfortable in the space we create together.

If you’re looking to start evolving your space now, and you’re already aware of the office partition trend taking over the businesses leading America, you’ve come to the right place to learn more. Trend-setters and organizational psychologists are reporting that the 2020s will be the decade of inclusivity and that all starts with your office design.

Open Your Space to… Natural Light and Happiness

Throughout the Holiday season, hours of sunlight can drop dramatically, leading to lower levels of productivity and higher rates of burnout and turnover. Here at the Sliding Door Company, our commercial division, Space Plus, we integrate natural light into our solutions to mitigate the impact negative impact of darkness, even when the snow is starting to fall. Planning your interior partitions for offices around such scientific discoveries is part of our expertise. Our team has the resources to ensure that no matter what your spatial context, team size, or project purpose, including ADA compliance, contributing to LEED points and flexibility, we can help you realize we can realize your design goals.

An office’s partitions are an integral part of fostering an inclusive environment. Glass Partitions are particularly popular with our clients as they align with some of the key factors that inspire communicative working cultures. For example, having both a glass office door and glass wall partition allows for greater use of natural light, an organic promoter of happiness and inspiration. Many leaders are opposed to the distraction caused by the clear glass; therefore, frosted, smoked, combination, or other glass opacities are great alternatives that give visual privacy without compromising on natural light.

partition walls

… New Interactions That Lead to Innovation

Along with the external influence of utilizing glass in your office environment, creating an efficient co-working space or predominantly open-plan office does not mean your more intimate meetings have to take place in dark, airless boxes. Co-working spaces are predicted to make up five to ten percent of all office spaces by 2030, so the 2020s is when you need to ensure you’re building out your competitive design. With the use of our glass wall partitions, changing your space to suit the daily needs of your staff and team sizes has never been easier.

Our expertise in movable walls will allow you to innovate your space for all future office needs (particularly for Holiday parties). Incorporating glass wall partitions inspires interactions, taking your office from a work environment to communal space in a matter of moments, but these walls need to be able to move when your spatial needs change. Fostering conversation and flow of human activity is a core purpose of our design expertise, so ensuring that your space can move with your needs is what we do best.

Flexibility is Key

There is no need to compromise on the availability of private spaces for high-concentration work. Whether you’d prefer to have your interior glass door slide up along the wall, or have them tucked away in a pocket, it’s your choice with our sliding glass doors for office partitions. All of our glass doors are factory-built and heavily tested for quality and safety in robotics technology. Our room dividers, office enclosures, modular wall partitions are fully customizable for every project we work on.

You can find the extensive bandwidth of our product line in one of our 26 showrooms nationwide, where we serve our clients with factory-to-field turnkey solutions. All of our solutions are fabricated with glass and aluminum, which are both environmentally friendly and contribute to earning LEED points too (another gift to yourself this Holiday season).

office space wall

For an in-person experience of our work, just visit your local showroom. We have also worked extensively with WeWork, Serendipity Labs, Venture X, Ignited Spaces, Hilton Hotels, and several Fortune 5000 office and living spaces. Our work with these huge international teams has been featured across the press and media, but we are most proud of the relationships we build for long-term, ongoing work with our clients, no matter the size or scale.

We also have a long-standing relationship with dealers of Harley Davidson, Ford, and more. Our work is featured in showrooms across the United States, including our stacking room dividers, pantry enclosures, and our barn doors. Whether you’re running a spa, salon, office space, school, nursery, hospital, dental office, daycare, or want to redesign your own home, we have a plethora of options to satiate any needs.

The unique purpose of our work is to allow you to realize the exact shape, size, and flow of space you desire. If you’re a real estate owner or developer, or the person hiring one for your company, let us help you find the most cost-effective way to evolve your working environment. As these integrated, smart designs continue to grow in popularity, remember that Space Plus, A division of The Sliding Door Company, continues to have the best interior wall, door, and interior glass partitions; everything is made in our fashion, with quality and safety you can trust. We will be happy to find the perfect combination of design and functional elements specifically for your project so that you can be delighted with the result. View our gallery for inspiration, and to learn more about how our excellent team keeps achieving such high results for all of our incredible clients.