Office Design: What are the 5 Best Office Styles?

Designing layouts for offices is difficult in Hong Kong. Teams are huge, offices are tiny, and every inch of space needs to be utilised to the fullest. To help you save a ton of money and headache, and to give you some much needed inspiration, we’ve outlined five of the best desk layout ideas for offices of any size.

Run out of ideas for your office’s desk layout? Use these office decoration ideas as a reference to better organise your team and improve their work environment.

Open Plan Office Layout

Google, Facebook, Spotify and a host of successful corporations across the world have popularised a more open design for office layouts. Walls and partitions are reduced. Managers and team leads share the same space as their executives, allowing for better communication, transparency, and team culture. Less private rooms open the way for more team work.

In this office layout design, several personal desks (usually a team) are grouped or lined up side by side to create “banks” or “isles” that fill the entire office. There are also multi-person work tables to allow for collaboration and informal meetings. The floor plan is simple, flexible, and adaptive. Expansions and changes in the office’s desk layout can be carried out easily without breaking down walls or private rooms.

Pros:

● Flexible and easily reconfigurable

● Encourages collaboration and team work

● Great for a young and energetic team

● Low cost and maintenance

Cons:

● Less Privacy

● More noise and distractions

Cubicle & Low Partition Office Layout

The vintage, classic, one-size-fit-all layout design for offices. Designed and popularised in the last century, this layout is still effective for many offices today, and might be the right one for you, even if the trend is moving away from it. Personal work desks are grouped together to form cubicles for executives, while managers enjoy more privacy with their own private room.

Partitions make the space less dynamic but allow workers to focus on their work with minimal distraction. This type of layout design might not excite the younger generation of talents, but is still a very cost-effective solution for a more traditional office culture.

Pros:

● More privacy for each individual

● Employees can have a personalised work station

● Low cost

Cons:

● Difficult communication and team building

● Creates visual barriers for supervisors

● Employees could feel confined or claustrophobic

● Out of trend

Traditional Office Layout

Reception, lobby, desks, conference rooms, and manager rooms. The traditional layout is great for businesses that often invite guests and clients over for meetings (such as a law firm). Many offices today incorporate a newer design (such as minimalism) with trending furniture and material into a more traditional layout to get the best out of both worlds.

Pros:

● Different zones for different functions (Reception, waiting lobby, working area, etc.)

● Works for almost any type of business or industry

Cons:

● Requires larger space to fit all the different zones

● Less reconfigurable and harder to expand

● Higher cost to construct

● Some space such as reception or conference rooms might become underutilised

Team-Cluster Layout

If your business focuses on team-based projects (eg. Marketing agencies, creative industry, etc.), designing your desk layout based on teams and groups will allow for greater collaboration between teams and a more inclusive environment.

Team members working on the same project will share the same area, where they will have a larger collaborative space (such as a multi-persons table), and move around with their laptop. Meeting rooms and personal desks will no longer be needed. However, some companies also approach this layout design by partitioning the entire office into separate rooms so that each team can have a more private chamber to work on their assignment.

Pros:

● Maximises team collaboration

● Encourages movement and interaction within the office

● Low cost and easy to reconfigure

Cons:

● Less personalisation and personal space for employees

● Noise and distraction from other teams could be a problem

Hybrid Office Layout

Not sure which of the above desk layout designs suits your office the best? Many offices opt to take elements from each of the above strategies and combine them to create something unique. However, this custom-make approach is incredibly hard to execute, as it is like putting various pieces of puzzles together. You will need to work with an experienced interior designer who knows how to make it work.

Pros:

● Custom-make design to suit all your needs

Cons:

● Difficult to execute

● Requires expert knowledge on interior design to execute

Find The Best Layout Design for Your Office

Every office has a different set of needs and challenges that asks for a unique layout design. An experienced design team like inT Design can help you find the best solution.

We are a multi-award-winning interior design firm with extensive experience designing work spaces for businesses in Hong Kong. Do not hesitate to get in touch with us, so we can discuss your specific office design and offer you personalised layout ideas.