Office Space Design

[ggambett]

So we decided to reorganize our office. It's relatively small but there's a lot of wasted space - I believe we can fit up to three times the current people without getting uncomfortable.

However I have no idea about how to design an office. I'm playing with a schematic of the office in a drawing program, but I'm not sure about certain guidelines such as how much space does a LCD + Keyboard + Mouse take, how much space you should allow for chair movement, and so on. Does anyone have any references regarding this?

[Therion]

Maybe this (http://fengshui.about.com/od/thebasics/qt/fengshuibasics.htm) would help you? :p

Greetings from a neighbour country (arg)...

P.D.: Sorry for derailing, but i had to...

[mot]

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html

[ggambett]

Maybe this (http://fengshui.about.com/od/thebasics/qt/fengshuibasics.htm) would help you? :p
Gracias, pero no era exactamente lo que tenía en mente ;)

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articl...nicOffice.html (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html)
I had read that article, but I don't have stupid amounts of money either :D

[Pogacha]

I don't think a program can help you.
I have this problem with my house and no matter how much I planned it we always found a better solution based on the current scheme problems.
Basically the problem is that you fill find pros and cons on every scheme you may try, but you can't accurately value them ahead, there are many factors you can't imagine that affect the comfort.
The only advice I can give you is to not put something in a permanent way. In other words, have the office in a dynamic state, in a way that it will be easy to reorder everything. In some iterations you will stick to one for more time until other change will make you change your mind.
Good luck!

[Nikos Beck]

Why exactly do you need to know how much space a keyboard takes up? I'm assuming that the desk size won't change based on how big the keyboard is. Personally I prefer large desks. I have the largest desk I could find at Ikea. I've used tiny desks "designed" for computers with a spot for the tower and a printer shelf... I hate them. A big, wide open desk lets me put things where I want: tower on top or underneath, a lamp on the left or right, keyboard on the tray or right in front of the monitor, printer on the left or right or a cable off to the network printer. I do not compromise on desk space.

As a rule of thumb for chair space. Place the chair next the desk, place another chair behind it. That's the space you need in front of the desk for the person. In my office, my chair backs up to a shelf. That's where I keep all of my books and papers.

I agree with Pogacha, you have to try things out.

And a pet peeve: tucking away computers so that they're out of the way. I am a programmer, I want my tower visible and accessible. I can't tell you how many times I've been at a desk and the tower is underneath the desk, sometimes behind a little door. Why? Why on earth would you make your tower hard to reach? I don't want to fiddle with a door or have to get on my hands and knees when I want to insert a DVD or plug in a mouse.

[Matthew]

I did a lot of mockups in Google SketchUp when we signed our office space. They really helped out--this is basically the layout we have now (we haven't taken any recent photos, whoops).

http://www.flashbangstudios.com/tests/office/3d_pit.jpg

http://www.flashbangstudios.com/tests/office/

The nice thing was when we decided to add another workstation we could easily bring up the old 3D files to see how best to fit it. All of the IKEA furniture, chairs, computers, and things were available from Google's user repository of SketchUp files.

[elias4444]

If you're really concerned about how much space an LCD monitor, mouse, and chair take up, I can't imagine you're going to be able to make it comfortable for people. At my last "job," if I leaned back in my chair, I'd bonk heads with one guy, while simultaneously being able to reach my left arm out and whack the heads of two other guys.

Cozy != comfortable, unless perhaps you're thinking about going boy-girl-boy-girl with the seating assignments. :p

[Jesse Hopkins]

Matthew,
I see you've got an old upright cabinet there. What can you play on that thing? looks like a fun place to work.

[Sune]

Since the 4 of us upgraded our tiny 13 m^2 room to a 60m^2 we didn't know what to do with all that space, so we turned half of the room into a C64/amiga section with a couch and a big screen :)

[ChiefRedThunder]

I really like the layout you have there Matthew.
When I get around to having an office I'll definitely try out google.
Thanks