Designing Innovative Office Interiors

Innovation within the office can have a valuable impact on staff within a business, so long as the ideas and changes have been properly thought through.

As the office has an increasingly diverse range of generations, nationalities, full and part-time workers, so a one-size fits all approach fails nearly everyone. Offices need to be more flexible, better able to support the working styles of the occupants, and above all should maximise the greatest asset of a business…it’s people.

Designing for innovative office interiors can appear easy…any new idea will seem to be a solution, a great way forward. But careful understanding of the reasons for innovation, the objectives of the business, and the nature of staff groups, will inform an innovative office interior design before any new ideas are proposed.

In some cases, furniture design can be the catalyst for an innovative office. The office fit-out project for marketing business Base One used mobile furniture to create flexible workstations. Each user can arrange their own space, and the workstations can be grouped to precisely match team and business changes…without any need for furniture fitters. Liberating the workplace has given Base One the business flexibility they need, with the sense of personal freedom that inspires staff.

Furniture was also the change solution for a major UK Training company. Hindered by inflexible training desks, they were reducing room occupancy by maintaining seperate exam, hardware and non-hardware training rooms, or using expensive technicians to reconfigure rooms. A universal desk designed in-house by Fusion Office Design has solved these mutually exclusive uses, enabling the business to improve room booking levels.

Innovative office design for a Covent Garden office started with their business processes. Whiteboards are key to every part of their operation, but a new HQ premises had virtually no locations to mount static boards. Our designers devised the LS writable panels system that have been described by our client as ‘the best whiteboards in the world’. Innovation in this scenario involved a completely new product not previously available, developed and manufactured in-house.

Projects often involve spaces designed specifically for innovation within the business. Typically these spaces are aimed towards creative thinking…blue sky spaces…and are usually very different to regular office interiors. Brainstorming rooms are a true blend of interior design, innovative design, and practical support for the brainstorming process. High ceilings are a good start, as is the ability to detach the space from the outside world. Colour and light often feature…but shouldn’t be to dominant. These aren’t lounge spaces…neither are they for breakout. A good innovation zone must inspire and be vibrant. The zone should also have mood-setting capability, so that the right tone can be set.