Modern office setups are not the same as they used to be two decades back. Interior designers nowadays lay more stress on better visibility, ample lighting and aesthetics.
Since most offices are in multi-storey buildings, the setup is usually on a single floor with partitions for private offices, conference rooms, dining areas, and other vital spaces for executive staff.
In many, if not most, contemporary corporate workplaces, office partitions offer a flexible space solution. Choosing the appropriate partitions is crucial for creating a welcoming work atmosphere. It also ensures privacy and affects an employee's comfort and everyday productivity. On the other hand, improperly designed and coloured partitions can cause stress and may bring instability to the workplace.
So, choosing an appropriate partitioning system for your office is crucial for more reasons than one. But before doing so, you must know the types of partitions available in the market.
Here are the most common partitions for offices:
So, how do you choose the best partitions for your workspace and employees? Here are 7 important tips to help you choose the right partitions for your office.
The first step in deciding how to divide your office should be to list all the divisions that make up your organisation. Divide it into admin or management, accounting, sales & marketing, designing, human resource, or any other departments you may have.
Even the modest organisation has staff handling completely unrelated responsibilities. Thus, creating separate departments on the office premise will help you improve the functioning of your company.
After you've become familiar with some of the possibilities discussed above, the following step is to finalise your budget. For example, having a permanent office location with no plans to relocate will affect the longevity of your partitions, implying that you should invest in higher-quality materials such as glass or wood.
If, on the other hand, you intend to shift your office in the future, you may require a cost-effective, readily installable, and replaceable partition solution. So, before you start looking, finalise your budget based on your office's requirements.
Having a pleasant, distraction-free working environment with privacy and personal space is essential. When designing your partitions, ensure that each employee has adequate working space with noise reduction.
To separate each employee workstation, meeting-conference rooms, or other task-specific activities, wood partitions, timber-dividing doors, or floor-to-ceiling glass walls are great solutions.
Surprisingly, partitions have a significant impact on the office’s interior aesthetics. Try incorporating office partitions into your present setup with many aspects, materials, styles, and designs.
If you wish to separate a larger room, you can use modern cubicles in colours that match your company's logo. On the other hand, folding panel walls with moveable segments are more suited to a smaller office.
Finally, use images, patterns, and colours to make the divisions stand out in your workplace.
Some partition materials may be better suited for your interior office space than others. For example, glass or polycarbonate partition material is preferable to other materials if you want to divide up the workplace kitchen or lunchroom because it is simple to wipe down and clean. For high-footfall areas, however, wooden materials are more durable.
Another critical element in ensuring employee comfort and productivity is natural light, as prolonged exposure to artificial lighting can lead to eye strain, headaches, and stress. To avoid this, ask your contractor to place partitions in a way that won't block natural light sources. Additionally, doing this will give the impression that the space is larger.
Transportable partitions help create meeting rooms, remodel offices, or simply redesign a place. If this is a practice at your workplace, you should prefer entirely portable items like modular panels or collapsible partitions.
Many portable panels with sleek, contemporary designs are available on the market to match your office's decor.
These are some crucial tips that can help you make an informed decision about partitions for your office setup.
Whether you are building a new office or renovating an existing one, partitioning is required for providing designated spaces to the office staff as per hierarchy while ensuring privacy and transparency. For this, you should research and shortlist the top vendors and installers of office partitioning systems in the UK.
If you are looking for high-quality, custom-made partitioning and installation for your office, you can contact Galaxy Insulation and Dry Lining – one of UK's fastest-growing company that offers a wide range of demountable aluminium partitioning systems, available in 50/75/100mm widths and in any combination of solid, fully glazed or part glazed elevations with square, radius or wrap-around profile sections.
For more information on office partition systems and solutions, contact the Galaxy interiors specialist teams at interiors@galaxyinsulation.co.uk.
