magazine
businessinfomag.uk
38
Office Design
Putting spare space
to work
It’s often said that, in business, time is
money. I would argue the same could
be said of industrial and office space,
which is a highly valuable commodity,
particularly in popular commercial
areas. For example, the price of office
space in central London can range
from £70 to £150 per square foot in
the most desirable areas.
With prices like these, it makes
economic sense to use every spare inch
of space. However, in my experience, this
is something many businesses fail to
do. In fact, many large companies have
sizeable chunks of their buildings sitting
empty or only being used occasionally.
These neglected spaces often have
significant potential for development.
Vacant space may arise for a number
of reasons: staff downsizing; outsourcing
of departments; new (more compact)
technology; or simply earmarking
for future expansion. In some cases,
companies move to a new location and
decide not to utilise the extra square
footage that comes with the address. In
others, it’s the ground floor of a high street
location that’s required and usage of the
upper floors is never fully considered.
Weighing up the options
So organisations are often faced with
the question of what to do with blocks
of unused space that, for the moment,
are empty but may be needed in a few
years. Is it worth renting them out to
another company? Possibly not on a
short term basis. And there’s certainly
no benefit in taking on staff to fill the
space just for the sake of it.
However, one cost-effective solution
that has proven popular with clients
is turning such areas into training/
presentation space. This creates a
valuable additional resource within an
organisation and can also be a rewarding
financial investment.
According to the UK Commission’s
Employer Skills Survey
, the UK
workforce spends 115 million days
each year undertaking training. Many
of these training days involve a car or
train journey to a different location,
a paid for lunch and associated hotel
costs, either for room hire or overnight
accommodation. These extras really add
up and in many cases cost more than
the training itself.
Although Toolshed specialises in
creating exhibition and event stands,
we have noticed increasing demand
from companies that want to make
more effective use of spare space by
transforming it into training facilities.
Many clients report that they have been
able to reduce training costs by up to
50% by staging events in-house. However,
others are deterred by the thought of
potential disruption during the conversion
process – or by the initial cost involved.
Meeting changing needs
The good news is that these projects
can usually be managed quite easily.
One we did recently for the National
Grid involved converting a sizeable area
that had previously been used as the
emergency gas supply control room.
In the decades since its original
installation, the equipment needed to do
the job had shrunk and, as each piece of
equipment was replaced, the amount of
space required went down. Eventually,
the equipment was relocated to a
smaller, completely self-sufficient space,
with its own power and water supply and
sufficient supplies to maintain operations
in the case of a natural disaster or
nuclear strike.
This left 255 square metres of free
space and nothing to go inside it – until
the company decided to transform
the space into a training venue able to
accommodate up to 180 delegates seated
theatre-style. Flexibility was a key part of
the design; none of the seating was fixed
and tables could be moved around easily
to suit a variety of requirements.
From the initial approach to the
‘grand opening’, the process took just
under five months, including the initial
concept and layout stages. Planning
around the structure was carried out by
architects and consulting engineers Pick
Everard. We also worked with Demark
Building Services, who were responsible
for all physical changes to infrastructure
including any electrical work.
After the space was completed, it
was used on a daily basis mainly for
internal training, including health and
safety, technical updates and customer
service. The room was also used for
social events and departmental awards
ceremonies, saving the company hundreds
of thousands of pounds in hotel room hire
and associated costs. Despite the fact
that from the outset the conversion had
David Priestley of Toolshed Communications explains how companies can
make much more of their unused spaces.
Many large
companies
have sizeable
chunks of
their buildings
sitting empty
or only
being used
occasionally
