My First Ever Realised Design.

While I was in Shanghai I was given the chance to design the layout for a small two storey office within a larger office complex in YIWU. It mainly involved me laying out a furniture floor plan in a scale so that locations for electric sockets to be placed. I however saw this a chance to design something and actually see it come to life, so tried as best as I could to interject some other ideas too. The budget for the office was relatively low, so I really had to use basic techniques to create interesting aspects.

Sketch plans of the proposed layout

The office is a double floor space, with access on the ground floor and an internal staircase for movement. The client asked that the ground floor be a space for meeting with clients, holding meetings and generally a nice place to work (As that was where she would be working). As the a lot of the grunt work would be done upstairs and would often messy, so keeping that part out of the way was best. In terms of meeting with clients on the ground floor, I suggested that by making the coffee/storage are jut out of the wall an intimate space could be created. If this is filled with a sofa, arm chair and a low table, it could be turned into a waiting/reception area. The client loved this and almost immediately called up some colleagues, telling them to source an interesting sofa. A lot of the rest of the layout of the ground floor was based around the sizes of tables and location of storage, so I couldn't really inject any ideas into that aspect. 

The 1st floor, being larger than the ground allowed me a bit more space to get creative with the layout of the internal elements. The office manager was to be situated upstairs. In order to keep an eye on the rest of the staff a conventional separated office wasn't wanted. Instead I suggest that another intimate space could be created similar to the waiting room, which would create a sense of hierarchy within the office without completely separating the manager. The final aspect I had an influence in was the location of a glass wall. A large amount of stock and products have to kept on site as the offices main role is the quality control testing and sourcing of stock to be sold back in the UK. The client stated that this is often badly stored and looks a mess. I suggested locating it behind a glass wall, as although it will still be messy it will be isolated and can be hidden away slightly.

That's pretty much all I had to do really, it wasn't much of a project but it was something that I designed and actually got to see come to life, which was a first for me. So pretty happy about it. Below are some pictures of the office just as all the furniture was placed in. ENJOY.. 

Reception/Waiting Area

Meeting Space Located On Ground Floor

Office Managers Open Plan Yet Isolated Office On the 1st Floor.

Office Managers Desk. The Glass Wall Will Be Placed On Other Side Of The Column.