Office Design Layout

I was anxious and excited to start my fist day at NeoCon in Chicago.  I didn’t know what to expect as about 100 DIRTTBags gathered at the Hotel 71 on Wacker Street for the annual DIRTT training and meeting session.

Mogens was inspiring, as always, in his typical "colorful" way, followed by announcements of what’s new with the latest software released, upcoming product releases, sales updates and forecasts for 2010-2011 and strategies.  The afternoon was a session called "Thrills with Drills." We were divided up into about 10 teams of 10 people each and handed power tools (grunt grunt)! We were given a set of plans with an office design layout and a pile of stick built DIRTT product and a stop watch and someone yelled “go”!  We built a small office about 4’ x 4’ square about 5’ high, including power.  Each wall was different and we had to read the plan elevations to exactly match where all the tiles went, etc.  What fun!  And guess who’s team won? Yep, you guessed it. My team, along with David Morgan from Tangram!  We made our local DIRTT reps, Donna Shirely and Mike Taylor proud.

Following this exciting activity, we walked to the new DIRTT showroom at 325 N. Wells Street for a cocktail party reception and sneak peak of what the world will see at Neocon. Wow, is all I can say. You MUST get over to the showroom to see it and bring as many people with you as you can. It is amazing.  Photos from my fabulous day and the showroom are on Facebook.

The following is a guest post from Paula Christiansen on her first day at NeoCon.  When she is not selling custom office furniture with our Tangram Studio team, she is educating the commercial interior design community on the architectural products offered by Tangram Interiors.

I was anxious and excited to start the day at 7am.  I didn’t know what to expect as about 100 DIRTTBags gathered at the Hotel 71 on Wacker St for the annual DIRTT training and meeting session.  It was a great day.

Mogens was inspiring, as always, in his typical "colorful" way, followed by announcements of what’s new with the latest software released, upcoming product releases, sales updates and forecasts for 2010-2011 and strategies.  The afternoon was a session called "Thrills with Drills."  We were divided up into about 10 teams of 10 people each and handed power tools (grunt grunt)!  We were given a set of plans with an office design layout and a pile of stick built DIRTT product and a stop watch and someone yelled “go”!  We built a small office about 4’ x 4’ square about 5’ high, including power.  Each wall was different and we had to read the plan elevations to exactly match where all the tiles went, etc.  What fun!  And guess who’s team won? Yep, you guessed it.  My team, along with David Morgan from Tangram!  We made our local DIRTT reps, Donna Shirely and Mike Taylor proud.

Following this exciting activity, we walked to the new DIRTT showroom at 325 N. Wells Street for a cocktail party reception and sneak peak of what the world will see at Neocon. Wow, is all I can say. You MUST get over to the showroom to see it and bring as many people with you as you can. It is amazing.  Photos from my fabulous day and the showroom are on Facebook.

Have you ever been in a rut at work…a slave to a routine? Have you been bogged down by gobs of tasks? Have things been “too busy”, “too hard”, or taken “too long”? We all get there…but how long do we stay there? Creating “standards” or a routine kit of parts is in many cases the goal with an office design layout and commercial interior design. Cost effective and what clients request? Yes! Repetitive and possibly rut inducing? YES!

A few years ago, a certain two year old (my niece Emme) responded to questions in the following way; “too busy” (translation: No) “too hard” (translation: NO!) or “too long” (translation: NOOOOOO!!!!!!!) This drove her parents crazy. (It’s funny how her responses even at that age parallel excuses we sometimes make as adults.) Her parents much preferred (and who wouldn’t) when she answered “SURE!”

On one particularly cranky day with no inspiration in sight, too much to do and people wanting much more than I thought I could give, I gave up. I gave up the rut, the routine, the “too busy”, “too hard”, and “too long.” I changed my response and in return, it’s changing me. I decided to roll “Emme-style” and say “SURE!”…to just about everything. “Can you help me with interactive whiteboards?” “SURE!” I replied, even though I knew nothing about them. “Do you have time to review some samples from a commercial flooring vendor?” “SURE!” “Can you speak to this group of students?” “SURE!” I was surprised by what was happening. Giving more was actually taking LESS time, making it possible to break from the routine that was dragging me down! There were also unexpected opportunities: Speaking to first through sixth graders at a school career day. The best question from that day: “Do you know Oprah?” I wish!! (Note to Oprah…PLEASE call me so next time I can answer “SURE!” to that question.) Hosting high school students at our main office for a “job shadow” day and seeing their jaws drop when we picked them up in our company van. Critiquing final projects for a college course, and my favorite, actually having more time to do the parts of my job I love….working with our designers.

Signing off for now…SURE!

I think that it is safe to say that anyone that works in the commercial interior design industry or has any involvement in dealing with office furnishings would agree it is easy to become overwhelmed with the countless products to choose from when creating an office space design.

From the floor to the ceiling, it could be the thousands of patterns and colors made available by the commercial flooring vendors to the more technical components of healthcare environments that could put any experienced professional into a tail spin.

But every once in a while a product comes along that is not only simple to specify, but more importantly simple to use - especially when that product is integrated with technology.  Such is the case with media:scape by Steelcase.  A seamless integration of furniture and technology, this product allows a user to quickly and easily "walk up and connect" their laptop to a table which is attached to as many as four screens.  No longer does a single person have to control the projector and sharing of information - now data can be shared from multiple sources, by multiple people - all at the same time!

Obviously, since Tangram Interiors is a Steelcase dealer and office interiors solutions provider we have access to use their full line of products - which is evident upon visiting any of our four showrooms in Los Angeles, Orange County, the Inland Empire and San Fernando Valley.  We have already installed two standing-height media:scape stations in our Santa Fe Springs showroom, one lounge-height station in Santa Ana and have multiple others that we are using in a "test drive" program where we deliver it to our customers' own offices so that they can kick the tires and use it for a week or so.

I must say that media:scape has definitely created an unusual buzz in the office, unlike any other I have witnessed in my tenure here.  The stations rarely go unused; from impromptu meetings to review documents between two individuals, to full conferencing sessions between our two showrooms using our WebEx meeting center for real-time document sharing as well as our latest addition of a video conferencing solution from LifeSize (of which Tangram is now an authorized dealer!) to allow for more personal interaction.

I may be a bit partial since I love technology, but I truly think that the office design layout and the way in which people interact within it is about to dramatically change thanks to technology solutions like media:scape.

If you have any thoughts on the use of technology in the workplace or if you would like more information on how we have integrated it in our offices, I would love to hear from you in the comments below!

When we first met the architects, we were driving through Venice looking for the right house when Charlotte saw an Orange House with their address on it...she knew this was going to be a fantastic project!  Inspired by the Orange House she met with the team and learned that the client didn't have the office design layout to support traditional cubicles.

Their collaboration led to a vision - "if we used curved corners the client can increase their station count by 20%". The mission was to get as close to walls and meet code clearances by creating 18" radius corners.

This was the pinnacle of the office space design challenge for Studio: "How do we engineer curved corners?"

Manufactured wood drums have the 18" corner we need and they are really attractive - but really pricy!

To keep within budget we decided that steel was going to be the best option, until...we calculated that the weight of using 1/8" steel skins was prohibitive to the building - workstations weighing 700 lbs. are as heavy as a Bison!  Plan C - ALUMINUM...it's true, 3rd time is a charm!  We achieved the look and radius we needed and the workstation weighed 50% less.

I just got back to the Studio from an afternoon of prototyping felt tack panels at our upholsterer. For one of our current custom office furniture projects, the architect has a desire to create interior tack panels with horizontal stripes.

The inspiration comes from a British carpet manufacturer. They offer a line of thick, nubby, horizontal-striped carpet. It's really quite beautiful.

So how do we replicate a similar feel within the custom workstations? The architect suggested wicking felt, stacked horizontally. We attempted to sew 1/2" diameter wicking felt tubes to a felt backer. It was a bit like trying to squeeze a bubble. Needless to say, we had to go in an alternate direction.

However, felt has a great warm textural feel. We love felt! It's a "green" material (sustainable office furniture is something that we always try to incorporate into our projects) that has this fantastic organic/industrial/warm feeling all in one. Who would have thought all of that would be possible in one material? So I stopped by our felt vendor in Placentia (locally manufactured office furniture is another key to Studio projects) to obtain several sheets of felt.

Now, how could we take plain, flat felt sheets and begin to fold and sew them to create depth and pattern? There are so many options and possibilities when it comes to sewing: the manipulation of the felt sheets, the stitching, layering of strips - all interesting and full of possibilities.

We arrived at a possible solution. Gustavo, the factory manager, refurbishes old vintage cars. He suggested we treat the felt panels like vintage car seats - curved, detailed stitching, piping - picture a 1959 Impala or a 1965 Falcon. We landed on a 3/4" diameter piping strip stacked horizontally with a felt cover. Gustavo and I set out to the sewing machines to see if this would work. By horizontally stacking the piping and stitching it between two layers of felt I think we have a close facsimile to the British carpet!




Do you have a project that you are trying to incorporate something unique into? Let TangramStudio know - we would love to co-create something with you for your office design layout!

Recently, a design consultant and I were working on a project for a fairly conservative client.  The designer had proposed incorporating a fair amount of lavender into the scheme.  Given the conservative nature of the client, introducing lavender (which elicits a strong and not always favorable response in the realm of office space design) was cause for concern.  While Bottega Veneta and Fendi have splashed lavender across their fall 2009 collections and this has trickled down to H&M, it’s not common in the cubicle filled world of office furniture design…yet. 

On the day of our presentation, the designer arrived carrying a Bergdorf’s bag filled with samples in varying shades of lavender, plum, and mauve…no back up colors.  We refined our selections, made them more conservative and moved our cast-offs and the Bergdorf’s bag (left oddly standing up) to a credenza in the room.  The presentation went well though the CEO was hesitant, but open to incorporating lavender into the office layout.  The designer shared his inspiration for the schemes, which included the advertisements for Botega Veneta and Fendi.  As the designer gestured to the advertisements, the CEO saw the Bergdorf’s bag (also a lovely lavender color) below the advertisements along with our cast-offs for the first time.

“What are these?” the CEO asked.  The designer answered, “Oh, those are some things we thought were a little too wild.”  “Really?  I like these better.” The CEO replied. 

I am not sure if it was the ads or the strategically placed Bergdorf’s bag that validated our scheme, but I did see a flicker of victory cross the designers face!

Do you have any stories about incorporating something wild or unusual into an office design layout?