With office, commercial and retail design trends constantly changing pace, focusing on fit out options that unite your company vision and people seamlessly should go beyond simply ‘keeping up with the joneses’. In recent years, interior design trends have sung praise for workspaces that embrace large open-plan concepts and hot desking.
Whilst the benefits of creating an open-plan environment for employees are numerous: staff interaction, flow, shared resources, cost-effective, visibility, light and heating advantages - crafting a space that seamlessly incorporates closed spaces provides privacy, acoustic and zonal benefits which are difficult to achieve through open plan alone.
Gone are the days of small, cold and dank office cubicles or changing rooms, nowadays partitioned spaces embrace a sleek, modern mindset and are designed to move with a space, not against it.
“Whether your embarking on a complete interior fit out or modernising the look and feel of an existing workplace environment, our partitioning systems are designed to improve office flow and spatial management,” explains Mike Dixon of Focus Construction. “We’ve developed an award-winning Frontline partitioning system, which is aesthetically and purposely designed to seamlessly connect interiors in a unique way.”
Today’s workplaces require modularity – largely in thanks to Millennial and mobile technology influences. Cubicles have disappeared - instead think of spaces composed of flexible partition systems that integrate various furniture elements and are easily adaptable. Consider subdivision and configurable areas that can be adapted to employees changing needs.
“Workspace design can be the making or breaking of a business,” explains Dixon. “Environment design impacts on efficiency – quality and quantity. In terms of partitioning, partitions are cost-effective and flexible – our multiform demountable partitions are a good example of this – and they can aid employee concentration.”
Streamlining your space doesn’t mean things just look good, they also work in accordance with your wants and needs. Partitions, especially sliding walls are perfect for businesses that need to enhance their air flow. Keep the doors closed to retain heat in the winter and open the doors to improve air flow in the summer. And forget banging and crashing doors or jammed cavity sliders, today’s technologies are as quiet and stealth as ships in the night.
“Our patented Frontline partitioning systems eliminate bulky doorjambs, glazing mullions, and transoms, and they minimise join and bead lines. They feature consistent 30mm headtracks, stopends, skirting, and scotia throughout,” explains Dixon. “The effect is clean and seamless with doors, glazing, and walls all mounted in a single, continuous plane. A good example of this was our Westpac’s Queen Street branch project which incorporated both Frontline and Spanline partitioning systems in its complete re-fit out.”
Craving a new school of thought for your fit out project? Here’s a few parting points to pin on the wall.
Think partitions for:
Flexibility and choice – Use where needed, move where needed. More permanent glass screens are ideal for offices and meeting rooms, while demountable panels can be moved easily for desk clusters.
Strong and tough – Glass partitions for larger spaces or movable panels for desk structures, todays partitions are built to last and of high safety standards too. Most importantly, they can cope with the daily wear and tear of office life and furniture change-ups.
Save money and time – Not only is partitioning cost-effective, but by installing the likes of Focus Construction’s multiform demountable partitions businesses are also future-proofing their spaces. A redesign or layout change over the course of a weekend doable and comes without the cost!