The Total Office

Trick question !  There’s no such thing as a LEED certified product.The LEED certification, bestowed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) applies only to buildings and construction , interior design, operations & maintenance, developments & homes. LEED-certified buildings are resource efficient. They use less water and energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As an added bonus, they save money. It’s important to note that LEED isn’t the only certification in the industry. Estidama is another prevalent standard in the middle east, developed and maintained by the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC). In spite of the options available, LEED remains dominant and preferred standard due to its globally accepted standards and flexibility in being applied to any type of project.  Why do you need to know this ? Because if you’re reading this, more often than not you’ll find yourself ( or already have) working on a project revolving around the sust...

When was the last time you had a meeting in an actual meeting room? Before you think of a date and time, let me throw in something else for you to consider: when was the last time you had a meeting that genuinely needed a meeting room? Traditional meeting spaces belong to an older generation of office spaces - an era that revolved around cubicles, large desking systems, corner offices, and when oversized suits and suspenders were still in fashion [ Ok, maybe not that old ;) ]. The point is, there’ve been several factors that have forced the hand of change in terms of office design. The most notable among these is technology , increasing ROI on real-estate cost, and the inclusion of millennials and younger generations into the workforce. These have forced creative ideas and designs to emerge on how offices should be configured.  Going back to the topic of meetings, if you were asked to really think about how you define a meeting, you’d no doubt come up with a few diff...

Fabric properties go far beyond the obvious visual and surface-level attributes. The fabric selection process is usually towards the end of the design process, but should not be ignored. Depending on the type of usage and the environment the office furniture is going into, selecting the right upholstery is critical if you expect the material to last long. Below are a list of important features to consider when picking upholstery materials: Abrasion When looking through fabric specs you’re bound to come across either of these two terms  - Martindale or Wyzenbeek. They’re expressed in double rubs or cycles numbers( Eg : 10,000 double rubs or 20,000 cycles). They're simply testing methods used to test the durability of the fabrics. The Wyzenbeek is the standard in the US. While they both test durability, the manner in which the testing is carried out is different. Each of them is an indicator of fabric durability. Higher the number, better the durability. But one cannot infer Mar...

If there was ever a must-have in the office, irrespective of role, title or industry - it’s a writable surface . We’ve been exposed to it right from the start - from staring at kindergarten teachers write down the alphabets on the big chalkboard, to college professors or project managers jotting down ideas and information on a whiteboard. It’s almost subliminal like.  You need a space to pour out all those thoughts and ideas onto. Designing a space for your brainstorming sessions isn’t hard, but there’s no one size fits all solution.  Before we move to products - there are three points you need to evaluate before picking them Flexibility  This refers to flexibility with space, as well as the option to be moved around. Some offices require writable surfaces to go across round columns, corners, and even furniture! And in some cases, you’ll even need to move them around the room.        2. Readability It’s import...

If you haven’t got the first clue about office furniture , you’d be excused for assuming BBF means ‘ Bestest-Best-Friend ‘. And you also most definitely need to read this piece from top to bottom. The rest of you who correctly guessed ‘ Box-Box-File ‘ can move on ( although we recommend you read in case you’ve forgotten some of the basics ).  In furniture, Pedestals are box-like frames containing drawers for storage purposes. They are generally placed below the worktop towards one corner, either freestanding or to provide support to the workstation. It’s that thing you either meticulously fill with stationary and paper-work, or, you dumb random stuff in only to be never found again.  Let’s have a look at some of the basic specs and options available with pedestals  SIZES - Slim & Regular  The size would depend on how you want to configure it, which we’ll look at next. The most common ones which are placed under the worktop to either your...

Colors are an explicit expression of personality and taste. Picking the right color is a tricky affair; besides individual tastes in color being subjective, it’s also important to pick a color that fits your company image and nature of work. It affects an outsider's perception of your business.  But moving beyond the aesthetic appeal of colors, it’s been proven that colors can have a subliminal effect on productivity and mood. A study has shown that colors may account for changes in an individual’s cognitive and psychomotor performances, though the extent of it is unknown.  We’ve narrowed down the major points you need to check off your list when picking colors for your office & office furniture :  How Color affects behavior & productivity World renowned psychologist Angela Wright developed a science backed theory named color affects system . According to her, individual perception of color may be subjective based on personality, but there are ...

You’ve heard the urban adage, ” the true test of a person’s patience is a bad internet connection.” We’d like to think this applies to furniture as well, in some form or the other. To be clear, we’re talking about design, offices furniture that, aren’t necessarily just bad in quality but are counterproductive to what they're meant to do. Like buying task chairs without castors - why would someone do that ?! While you won’t find someone throwing a laptop out the window ( worst case scenario ), you’ll definitely find some disgruntled employees struggling to focus on their work. Productivity takes a big hit, and facilities and HR departments will have their suggestion boxes overflowing with complaints. Below are some of the mistakes we’ve seen decision makers make over the years. Keep them in mind the next time you’re deciding what to buy: Assuming there are one size fits all solutions Never a good idea. It may make the decision process shorter and easier, but it’s a bad lo...