Office space that encourages collaboration

These days, firms have plenty of choice when they are on the lookout for office space. For example, many opt to make the most of serviced offices for the convenience and flexibility they offer. Meanwhile, a lot of organisations are also choosing working spaces that encourage collaboration between colleagues.

For example, the new administrative offices of Grant MacEwan University houses two vice presidents and 13 directors who all work in the open with everyone else, the Edmonton Journal reports. In the centre of the University Service Centre there are private and semi-private glassed-in meeting rooms and workstations are set away from windows on all four sides, so each of the 225 personnel who work in the office has access to a view.

Commenting on this, facilities planner Jacqueline McLeod said: “Nobody owns the windows. It’s shared community space, so that you don’t have that sense of ownership or hierarchy.”

She added: “It was a huge change for most people to come to a space that had so much glass and openness in it, but one of the themes in the design of the space was openness and transparency.”

According to the Edmonton Journal, it is possibly the largest open, collaborative office space in Alberta.

Meanwhile, the area in the middle of the office is referred to as ‘The Commons’ and it includes a cafe and large seating area with a waterfall. This was intended to foster communal working and so-called “cross-pollination”, whereby workers from different departments can come together on an informal basis.

The type of office space that organisations opt to use very much depends on their individual aims and objectives. It is now common for bosses to head online to look for serviced offices and so on as this can provide them with greater choice and help them benefit from optimum value for money.

For more information please visit – www.servicedofficespaces.net