The first and perhaps most crucial step when designing and constructing a commercial space is creating a floor plan.
Whether you’re leasing or selling the commercial space, a perfect floor plan is a great selling point.
Intend building for your own use? Ensuring that every space works together can increase employee productivity and client comfort, ultimately adding to the company’s bottom line.
Here’s how to do it.
Determine the size and shape
When creating the perfect commercial space floor plan, the number one thing to do is to determine the size and shape of your building. To do this, consider the number of employees you have and the space requirement for their work.
Do away with redundant spaces
Many people lose the opportunity to build a comfortable commercial space that maximizes productivity by adding unnecessary spaces.
Before finalizing your floor plan, take a good look at all the spaces in the building and determine whether they are really necessary. Is that additional space for junior staff necessary?
How about the separate spaces for each unit in your company? Remove those spaces that have similar functions as others and put them to better use.
Consolidate
Consolidate your office space as much as you can. For instance, integrating the kitchen area with the staff room improves space efficiency and increases productivity.
Consolidation also reduces travel time between offices and encourages teamwork. You can also consolidate in other areas, such as bringing sanitary facilities together to reduce plumbing costs.
Consider traffic flow
How easy is it to get from one point to another? Can you create a path that makes it easy for staff to access another office?
Can customers move through the building in less time and without distracting employees in your shopping mall? How easy can customers sample an item and get to the checkout point?
When creating the perfect floor plan for your space, think about how to make foot traffic flow smoothly.
Account for future growth
Every business worth its salt wants to expand in the future. So you should account for this growth while planning the perfect office space.
Will you hire more employees in the future? How will your clients use your commercial space? Do you plan on offering new services or new products in the future?
Think about your future goals and tweak your space accordingly. For example, you can add more square footage if you’ll bring more employees on board later on.
Commercial buildings should be more than just blocks of walls. They should be spaces companies will love to lease, employers can thrive in, and clients can be comfortable in.