How Office Partition Designs can Create Privacy in an Open Space
Since the decline of the cubicle, more and more businesses have to embrace the open office concept. Communication and creative interchange, employee-to-employee connections, health, and happiness as well as building cost reduction, criticism of open spaces almost always begins with privacy and noise issues.
Some studies have gone so far as to conclude that reductions in personal space can result in a negative impact on productivity and even drastic declines in face-to-face communication.
Open-plan office designs give a sense of balance. Here are some tips to create privacy in an open space by office partition designs.
How Office Partition Designs can Create Privacy in an Open Space
1. Retractable partitions and where to use them
Remote-controlled office partition designs provide a work area with versatility – allowing for visual and acoustic privacy or inclusive accessibility with one touch of a button. Softzone interiors offer customizable retractable walls that fit easily into a variety of design scenarios depending on both mood and practicality.
Conference areas are the most popular place to utilize the option of reducing visual and acoustic interruptions or distractions. There’s also a lot to say for giving individual employees a personal choice when it comes to creating privacy at their workstations.
2. Acoustic management and designing collaborative work environments
Plan the office partition design strategically. If you were designing a residence, you wouldn’t put a bathtub in the kitchen. Designated areas for open-air conferences and brainstorming should be placed near to those where chatter won’t interrupt anybody’s train of thought.
Think break rooms and cafeterias; places where the flow of an office can truly benefit from your open floor plan. Furniture in these areas can be situated to contain noise levels. Make a hollow square of high-backed couches to help keep the conversation centered and focused inward.
3. Get creative with static partitions
Glass partitions are an effective office partition design to provide noise-dampening workspaces without compromising the visual community of an open office. Try glass when planning close-proximity office dividers.
Combine storage with a feeling of healthy seclusion by using open shelving as space dividers. Everyone brings personal items into work that they may not have room for at their desk, while shelf-space can also be filled with decorations to generate a vibrant atmosphere.
4. Quiet Pods
Another trend in the struggle for workplace harmony is the phonebooth inspired office pod. The right to make a choice has become an essential desire of the modern worker. No one wants to be trapped in a cubicle for eight hours every weekday – but out there in the hustle and bustle of an open workspace, employees are finding it increasingly difficult to complete or even begin to undertake tasks that call for peace and quiet.
5. Plants, Plants, Plants
No pun intended, friends, but it’s 2020. If you don’t have any plant life in your office designs, please add some straight away. We all love plants, and biophilic design trends are skyrocketing in popularity just as fast as those lovely Planet Earth time-lapses of flowers growing. Plants play an effective role in office partition designs.
In addition to purifying the air, reducing stress, increasing focus, and positive mood levels, plants provide an excellent and aesthetically pleasing sense of personal space without making anyone feel enclosed or trapped. The calming privacy provided by a well-placed piece of flora will give a sense of the freedom that we find outside in nature.
