Case studies

Zsuzsanna Vegvari works for the OFFISEVEN workspace consultancy firm, she plans the remodeling and redesigning of office spaces.  As part of her project below, the office of a Budapest-based IT company had to be reshaped and rethought.

"The total area is 453 m², which includes 2 large meeting rooms, 19 smaller offices, kitchenette, washrooms, and storage facilities, which all open from one, long corridor. The rooms had been renovated more than 5 years ago.

Things I considered:

1) We needed to create office spaces, which are ergonomic, convenient, and have a unified furniture and design scheme.

2) The function of some rooms had to be changed, so that communication and cooperation between co-workers would be easier more efficient.

3) In order to create a spacious, convenient room for a kitchen/eatery, the dispatcher's office and the current kitchen had to switch places.

4) The design of the corridor walls were to reflect the company's most recent products and services.

5) Storage cabinets had to be added to certain rooms, in order to keep the offices organized and to ensure that work is done efficiently.

After an initial survey conducted with the employees, it turned out that their majority is quite against the open-office layout, and management took this into consideration. As a result, we did not touch the original layout, so we kept the form that offices with 1-4 workstations open from a single corridor. The function of some of the rooms was changed though, and a new, spacious kitchen with an eatery for 6 was realized, combined with recreational rooms, where darts board, foosball table, and a pinball machine will be installed to help employees relax. We also created a separate office with kitchenette for the dispatcher.

The rooms got their own new design, taking into consideration the taste and requirements of those, who work in them. Everything got customized. Another spectacular aspect of the new design was the corridor, which now looks like a road, and the products of the company are painted on the walls graffiti-style, emphasized with LED lighting so that the arriving guests and clients will instantly see what the company does.

The resulting design airs youth, flexibility, freshness, which are crucial messages for an IT company to communicate to its clients."