The office scene is changing. Once offices used to be temples of formality as a rule, a place with little scope for personalization. Accordingly, interior design for offices has become a much more exciting scene, with scope for innovation and creativity. Here’s Imagine Interiors’ take on office interior design in 2019.
The world is changing and becoming highly diverse. Uniformity and conformity are being rejected. Personalization is becoming increasingly important. This has a big implication for interior design, particularly in formal settings like an office. Earlier in offices, sweeping design giving an impression of grandness and strict formality was the norm. Not any more.
There is a lot of scope for personalization and customization in office interior design. And, as a premier interior design firm in Bangladesh, Imagine Interiors is well-placed to bring out some of the trends in office interior design that can really help bring your office in line with current standards.
Is there any basic design philosophy on which these trends are based?
Yes, there are.
- The design should promote an atmosphere where employees feel invigorated to give their best for the firm.
- If the firm deals with clients in person, the office design should be one where clients feel comfortable.
- And, as with all interior design projects, it will follow the personal tastes of the management.
So, what are the features that you can consider in office interior design?
There are a lot of interior design features that will fit in with an office or official setting. Let’s see what a few of these are.
1. Adaptable Furniture
If furniture is easily adaptable, rooms can be easily multi-purposed. A room where various people sit with individual desks or work stations can be repurposed into a meeting room with one large table around which everyone meets.
On a simpler level, the design should be such that chairs, desks, tables and benches can be easily re-organized whenever and however needed, giving people a high degree of autonomy over their workspace.
Height-adjustable desks will give people the option to sit or stand as they need to, which makes it easier to look after their posture and avoid back pain.
Adding curtain rails to desks allows for people to work in privacy when needed (by drawing out the curtains) or maintain an open front and interact with people (by pulling the curtains back) as needed.
Get in touch with a custom furniture designer to get office furniture designed according to your exact specifications.
2. Eco-friendly Design
This is not unique to office interior design, this is something interior designers across the board, and across the world, are adopting into their design practices.
Have space for potted plants throughout the office. Maintain some flowering plants, especially the ones that have fragrance, which are very powerful in beating fatigue and boosting energy levels of employees. If the office has the budget to maintain it, a ‘live wall’ is always a good idea. Large windows ensure easy and plentiful availability of natural sunlight, which reduces the power consumption of the office and hence the carbon footprint of the office.
Did you know? The ability of plants to regulate the atmosphere inside a room makes it a good idea to add plants in bathroom design also.
3. Technology-friendly Design
The office workforce is increasingly tech-savvy. So, allow them to play to their strengths. For example, if a lot of work can be carried out by someone with just a laptop, you can include a lot of ‘nook’ type spaces equipped with laptop charging terminals.
So people can work in these nooks, at their own pace, taking a rest as required, and charging their laptop as they need. In fact, a company called Capital One Labs in San Francisco has gone ahead and incorporated this ‘nook’ type of design into their office, so that employees can work in privacy and at their own speed.
Did you know? Tech-friendly design can also be pretty useful in home office design.
4. Colour Schemes
Generally speaking, vibrant colours are very popular in the office interior design scene these days. Vibrant colours are no doubt good for raising employee morale. However, some addition of soothing colours like green in select areas could also help reduce stress which boosts productivity.
Did you know? Soothing colours are also good for bedroom design, as they help people relax and fall asleep.
5. General Ambience
The general ambience depends on the kind of work that goes on in an office. A company working in the technology sector would want a semi-professional setting, with technology-friendly settings and a colour scheme that boosts employee morale. A company working in the entertainment sector may want eclectic colour design room by room, and comfortable furnishings in line with what kind of work goes on in each. A law firm may go for a lot of black and white combinations.
The point is to match the ambience with the kind of work that goes on in the office.
To summarize
There is a lot of scope for improvisation in office interior design.
On a broad note, it should create an atmosphere where clients and workers feel comfortable, and will also reflect the personal taste of the management.
And, remember to make the office interior design
- Adaptable
- Eco-friendly
- Tech-friendly
- With matching colour schemes
- With an ambience matching the kind of firm you are dealing.
If you have any other tips for office interior design, make sure to tell us in a comment below, and let’s get a discussion going!
