As the largest furniture dealer in Northern California, One Workplace had a unique opportunity to design an office that could re-define their company culture and showroom experience when it decided to move to a brand new headquarters.
Working with Bay Area design firm Design Blitz, One Workplace had several goals in mind for their new Santa Clara headquarters:
- Improve workplace space efficiency
- Redevelop sales and mobile worker strategy
- Design an observation-based showroom experience
Improve Workplace Space Efficiency
In the move, One Workplace was looking to become more efficient in how they used their space. This new office took them from a 45,000 sq.ft. office and showroom built for 101 employees, to a 35,000 sq.ft. space for 165 employees.
If you've needed to reduce the size of your floor plan, you'll know what a pain this can be. In order to become more efficient, the design had the following items implemented:
- reduction in workstation footprint
- sales team moved to a mobile workflow
Redevelop Sales and Mobile Worker Strategy
As a part of the efficiency plans mentioned above, sales staff were moved to a mobile worker workflow. Rather than having designated desks for each member of the sales staff, who are often out of the office, the number of desks were reduced and meant to be shared. We've written about this design before, which is known as hotdesking or hoteling.
"Mobile workers store their belongings at a centralized location and work either at a shared workstation or in the soft seating of the work cafe or alternate work areas."
This move also signals to potential clients that the workplace style might be a more feasible option if they can both see it demonstrated and know that companies actually use it successfully.
Design an Observation-based Showroom Experience
With One Workplace's business being that of selling furniture for office environments, the company was eager to use their newly-designed office as a working showroom. Instead of having a dull, sterile showroom filled with unused furniture, this new showroom experience is based on observation, allowing potential customers to see how furniture is being used in a real office environment.
A key part of this was creating a way for these observers to view the workplace. The solution ended up being a two-story stacked structure known as the 'boomerang'. Design Blitz explains of the boomerang:
"The boomerang further manifested itself in the creation of the two-story stacked ‘boomerang’ in the center of the open office space. The elevated conference room and observation platform allows members of the One Workplace team to quickly survey the floor and show customers how a variety of systems solutions can intermix to create a unified, flexible and layered approach to workplace layout."
Now, let's go ahead and take a tour of the One Workplace's new office. If you're a furniture nerd, I'll try to point out a number of the pieces used in this project.
[Photos by Bruce Damonte.]
Above: Turnstoen Scoop Stools, Turnstone Campfire Ottoman
Above: Steelcase c:scape workstations with Think Chairs.
Above: Coalesse Hosu lounge chairs
Above: Coalesse Bob Lounge Chair
Above: Turnstone Cobi Chair
Above: Turnstone Cobi Chair
