An adaptable office: who puts the room back on Monday?

Choose a change worth making

Start with an entry in the diary. Suppose, for example, that your team wants to run a regular induction in the room normally used for client meetings. New starters need to see a demonstration and then work in pairs. That tells me more about the second layout than the word ‘multipurpose’ ever will.

Write down who sets up, what they have to bring in and what booking follows. A change the team makes every week should be easy for the people who are actually there. For a rare event, compare the proposed fit out with borrowing another room. You might prefer to keep a good meeting table exactly where it is.

Draw the room halfway through

Put tracing paper over the everyday plan. Pick up each item with your pencil and follow it to its next position. In the induction example, the meeting table might split into smaller tables, but the presentation screen is still on the same wall. Try the view from the seat nearest the screen as well as the one furthest away.

Now draw the awkward middle stage: one table is parked, another is still in use and the extra chairs are coming through the door. If the only place to park the first table is the spot the second one needs to pass through, the finished plan is asking someone to solve a puzzle every time.

• Where do the empty trolley and unused chairs stay during the session?
• Can both layouts use the screen and power points without leads across a walking route?
• Which moves can staff manage, and which need help or different equipment?

Try the furniture you already own

New furniture needn’t be the first decision. The Ministry for the Environment’s guide to office fit outs suggests looking for suitable items the organisation already has in storage. I’d bring a real chair and table into the exercise before specifying a whole set.

Try the change in both directions with the people who would make it. A stack of chairs may fit beautifully in the cupboard, yet retrieving it might mean unloading the workshop supplies first. Record that particular snag. A different cupboard door or a new home for the supplies may be more useful than replacing the chairs.

Decide what should stay put

An adaptable room can still have a permanent feature. A generous window seat or a wall of pinboards might be the part everyone wants in both arrangements. Jonty’s account of the Aro Digital office redesign describes how much retaining the character of the space mattered to him. I’d put those qualities on the drawing too.

Before settling the layout, give the person opening up on Monday a simple sketch of the reset. If it depends on a missing key, an off-site store or a colleague who never works Mondays, revise the design. If you’re planning an office fit out, bring the two bookings and a rough plan. We can work through the change between them.