Make Your Office More Inviting

Make Your Office More Inviting

Aug 2, 2019

Image source

Your interior design and office architecture can have a big impact on the success of your business, so it’s worth taking the time to get it right. When you create an inspiring working environment, your employees will naturally feel more motivated, leading to increased productivity and efficiency. In addition to this, an inviting office welcomes new and potential clients into your business and is responsible for giving them a great first impression.

With so much riding on the appearance of your office, try these tips to ensure you’re making the most of your workspace…

1. Switch up the flooring

Replacing office flooring doesn’t have to be expensive, but it can be a decisive factor in your interior design. Carpet floor tiles are a budget-friendly way to enhance office flooring, and they offer increased flexibility with minimal maintenance requirements. Using complementing colors for different areas can also help to make smaller offices look more spacious and differentiate between departments. 

2. Add new furniture

Office furniture needs to be safe and functional, but it can be visually-appealing to. Civic Australia furniture can work well in any work environment, whilst statement pieces and breakout furniture is ideal for welcoming reception areas. New office furniture also gives you the opportunity to improve your facilities. Office desks with integrated tech are fast-becoming the norm and a range of standing, sitting and floating desks will ensure your employees can work safely and efficiently. 

3. Use bold colors

Many workplaces stick to drab greys and whites, so why not brighten up your office with a splash of color? Using your existing branding, you can extend your corporate colors to your interior and exterior space. A feature wall, statement furniture, and vibrant meeting areas showcase your business as fresh and exciting, which is exactly the impression you want to give to your clients. 

4. Hang custom art on the walls

Artwork can be motivating, reassuring and thought-provoking, so it’s a great option for enhancing your workplace. Commissioning custom artwork enables you to access bespoke pieces, which are designed with your firm in mind, so you can ensure your corporate personality shines through. Another benefit of using custom artwork to enhance your office space is the option to switch pieces around from time-to-time. This helps to bring a new feel to the office on a regular basis and ensures that employees and clients frequently have new décor to inspire them. 

5. Increase storage space

The vast majority of offices are lacking storage space, and this can have a detrimental impact on the appearance of your workspace. As well as making the office look cluttered and untidy, employees are typically less productive when they’re working in a disorganized office. Adding storage space will enable your staff to access materials, tools, and equipment when they need them and will also ensure that your office remains clutter-free. In addition to increasing productivity and efficiency, a neat and orderly office guarantees guests, visitors and clients will feel welcome from the moment they walk through the door.

Time to make things happen!

Skyscrapers Keep Getting Taller. Why?

Skyscrapers Keep Getting Taller. Why?

Aug 1, 2019

Pixabay

Skyscraper fanatics in the 1980s and 1990s didn’t have much to talk about. There were a few tall buildings in the world, but the number of mega projects was few and far between. Things began to change, starting in 2005. The city of Dubai, of all places, announced that it was going to undertake a skyscraper building project the likes of which the world had never seen.

800-Meter Towers Become Mainstream

Dubai saw the writing on the wall for the oil industry over twenty years ago. The Emirate recognized that if it wanted to get away from the oil sector, it would have to reinvent itself. Tourism and leisure would be the way that it did this, and so city planners began looking at ways to entice the rich and the famous to the city. 

Architects proposed an 818-meter tall building, which they initially called the Burj Dubai, that would stand as the centerpiece for a new urban development. Nothing had even come close to the 600-meter mark, let alone 800-meters. What Dubai proposed to build was extreme. 

For around 25 years, the Sears Tower in Chicago was the building with the highest roof and the highest number of floors in the world. The World Trade Centre Towers One and Two weren’t far behind. And the CN Tower in Toronto was the tallest freestanding structure, though not much of a tower if we’re honest. All of those towers were under 500 meters, and they were the tallest the world had to offer.

The Burj Dubai, now Khalifa, would utterly surpass them. It wasn’t an incremental increase – it was a step change. The tower would propel the world into a new era of supertalls where anything seemed possible. 

What Made It Possible? 

The first thing that made these tall towers possible was the removal of supporting columns from the interior of the building. Almost all buildings taller than forty floors use a central column, off which hang the various levels. The Sears Tower is an example of this in action. If you could remove the cladding and floor plates, you’d see just a big concrete stack which contains the elevator shafts and stairwells. 

Flickr

Improvements in risk management services made supertalls more likely too. Companies got better at managing the risk of building large construction projects and figured out ways of cutting their insurance costs. That famous picture of men sitting on a cross beam high up on the Empire State Building couldn’t happen today. Conditions are much, much better. 

The concrete core of buildings was also reinforced with steel rope. The rope sometimes called rebar, not only made the concrete stronger but also meant that it could flex in the wind. 

The limits of this combination of technology have not yet been reached. Plans are in place for a one thousand meters tall building in Abu Dhabi, just along the coast from Dubai, with engineers predicting completion at some point in the next decade. And even taller buildings are on the drawing board. 

It’s an exciting time to be interested in the engineering of tall buildings. 

Pin It on Pinterest