SPACE PLANNING CH 8 - Commercial Projects Flashcards
What are five important considerations when designing offices?
1) Allocation - How functions are accommodated efficiently in a space.
2) Circulation - How the corridors and aisles are organized into a clear, easy-to-understand movement system
3) Solids and Voids - How the enclosed spaces are arranged to produce masses and open spaces that are clear, cohesive and comfortable
4) Public/Private - How space and functions are placed strategically to produce clear definition and the appropriate separation between public and private areas.
5) Real Estate - How the relative worth of the different zones on the floor plate is perceived and functions placed accordingly.
What are some of the main issues when designing office projects?
1) Space utilization is essential because it’s often leased per square foot. Efficient yet comfortable.
2) Understand the work styles you or designing for in order to provide suitable space-planning and furniture solutions
3) Heirarchical structures - Is there one, or is it more of a communal, uniform arrangement?
4) Are the work groups organized based on team practices? Workstations?
5) Provide atmosphere for concentration, work efficiency, productivity
6) Design good spaces for work meetings, whether conference rooms or informal team areas.
7) Maintain professional public image by controlling spaces seen by visitors and making those environments special.
8) . By law/code, office environments need to accommodate employees and visitors of all abilities (universal design).
What’s the first rule of office planning?
Straightforwardness
What are some of the rules of office planning?
1) Combine and group similar parts and elements whenever possible. Attach workstations and form groups that share panels (economy) and that produce cohesion, not fragmentation.
2) Be sensitive to the privacy and acoustical needs of users in open areas. Utilize panel heights effectively to produce a healthy balance between communication needs and privacy/acoustical concerns.
3) Be aware of the negative impact of excessive noise transmission between rooms. Plan your walls, partitions and doors in ways that promote a comfortable acoustical environment.
4) Seize every opportunity to bring in natural light, and allow it to penetrate into the space. Try to arrange spaces such that as many workers as possible have access to external views. Be cautious of glare from windows to computer screens.
5) . Orient furniture in ways that shelter the workers from people walk-in by or coming into an office. Don’t expose people’s back.
6) . Try to minimize amount of space devoted to circulation because office space is expensive.
7) . Be careful when making decisions about where to place enclosed rooms. Whenever possible, place offices toward the interior of the space (using glass fronts if you want), and open up the perimeter areas.
What are some of the considerations when planning workstations?
Do the partitions need to be tall or lowered?
Avoid overly long clusters having more than 10 workers. (Groups of 4-8 are typical).
Different groups of workers require different configurations depending on tasks.
What are some considerations for the reception area?
Two zones - receptionist and guests
Receptionist facing visitors or sometimes a sideways position.
What are some considerations regarding columns when planning workstations?
The columns usually house electrical and communication cables, so they need to be in close proximity, but you don’t want a column to hit in the middle of a workstation. Try to plan for columns to hit just outside of the workstation.
What is ergonomics?
The study of human beings and their responses to various working conditions and environments.
What are the goals of ergonomics?
Reduce stress and eliminate injuries.
Promote comfort
Enhance productivity
What are some of the basic considerations for a good reception area design?
1) . Contain the area with enough backdrops to achieve a sense of place (but don’t fully enclose it)
2) . Ground the receptionist and the seating area properly so that they are not floating.
3) . Provide adequate clearances for smooth traffic around the reception desk.
4) Position then reception desk to ensure privacy from the sides and the rear.
5) Provide proper clearances in the seating area.
6) . Provide a place (usually on one wall) for the company’s name.
7) . Provide proper connections to the rest of the space including the nearby conference rooms.
8) . Control visual access to the rest of the space.
9) Place access corridors to the rest of the space carefully, following a sense of hierarchy between the public path to the conference rooms, and other public areas, and the secondary corridors for workers to get to their offices.
What are some considerations when laying out private offices?
1) Relation of user/desk to the front door;
2) Relation of main work surface to the walls and power/data outlet locations;
3) Appropriate clearances for circulation;
4) How the office sidewalls meet the perimeter window walls;
5) How the building’s window mullion module affects the office wall locations;
6) The materials used for the front wall of the office (solid, glass, partial glass)
7) Whether meetings with visitors will be around the desk or at a remote table or seating area.
8) Maintaining proper wheelchair accessibility clearances around doors
What are 10 elements to analyze an office floor plan?
1) . Treatment of the arrival space (main entrance) and the reception space
2) Placement of the main conference rooms.
3) Strategy to accommodate enclosed private offices
4) Distribution and character of the main open areas
5) Shape of the principal open spaces
6) Location of file cabinets
7) Disposition of secondary and informal conference rooms.
8) Location and treatment of the main break room.
9) Accommodation of support spaces (mail/copy/supplies)
10) Utilization of residual spaces
What are considerations when planning a retail store?
1) Movement - Attract shoppers and make it easy for them to move throughout the store. locate focal points to encourage them to move toward back of the store. Transition zone at the front entrance allows shoppers to look into the store before deciding to go in.
2) Merchandise - featured items close to the main aisles and highly visible. Secondary between featured; High demand in the back as magnets
3) Display - displays often moved around, so need to be moveable. Perimeters often fixed but have different hooks, shelves, etc., that can be changed.
4) Service - stock rooms, restrooms, manager offices, shipping/receiving occur in the back of the store as not to take up valuable front space. Service spaces within the sales space usually limited to cash wrap. These are strategically located to offer convenience and security.
5) The effective handling of building elements such as columns and the provision of proper clearances are important design considerations. Room for customers to move around each other.
What are different circulation schemes for a retail space?
Linear Loop Nodal Organic Linear Diagonal Organic Free
Five important design considerations when planning a restaurant
1) . Good flow
2) Kitchen (size and location)
3) Kitchen - dining relationship
4) volume of business
5) speed of service
