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Office layouts show how much management values productivity, creativity, and company culture. Here are all the ways your company can make its statement:

 

Closed office

Everyone has their own enclosed office in this work environment. The door is the signal to others whether they’re available or not for a conversation. They can fill their office with as many personal effects as they want and lock the door at the end of the day.

The advantage of this layout is that employees can meet clients in private. They also have a quiet place to focus on their projects. What’s more, there’s security as sensitive information can be locked up. Most importantly, they have a home away from home that’ll put them more at ease to perform their best.

The silos setting though makes collaboration difficult or nearly impossible to achieve. Since everyone’s isolated in their private little worlds, it’s harder for employees to know what’s going on with the company as a whole.

This kind of environment is best suited for law, medical, accounting, or consulting offices.

 

Open office

In an open office, most of the walls – both physical and metaphorical – are torn down. Everyone works in close proximity to one another with no closed doors getting in the way of communication.

This breaks up hierarchical structures and encourages communication among employees. With a permanent open-door policy, an open office fosters a sense of community. It’s a more relaxed setting that invites employees to give their input. It’s also the most cost-effective way to maximize use of space.

What you have to account for though is the work environment being much noisier. And because there aren’t any enclosed spaces, there’s a lack of privacy for staff who need to concentrate.

All this only describes an open office in general because it’s actually a very broad term when it comes to office layouts. Open offices can be broken down into these different types:

Cubicles

This was one of the earliest open office types where cubicles were laid out in large grid patterns. The modern variation is not that rigid anymore. Essentially, each workstation is enclosed on three sides by dividers.

Employees get more privacy with this design. They can focus better with dividers made of good sound-insulation material. They get all that while still having the option to communicate freely with colleagues in an open office environment.

The drawback is that it may cause a sense of claustrophobia for some employees – especially for those whose cubicle is in the middle of the room. One way to counter that is to use glass dividers to let in more light to filter through cubicles.

Cubicle open offices are ideal for customer service, technical support, and sales offices.

Semi-dividers

This is a modification of the cubicle style to address the claustrophobia issue. Everyone is still partitioned off, but the dividers are half the usual height.

That way, employees can actually see and talk with each other. It outlines their individual space without contributing to feelings of isolation.

Noise and privacy can be a concern though for employees who need to focus.

Consider this kind of set-up if you’re an advertising, news, or magazine firm.

Team zones

In this arrangement, staff are grouped together by their team functions. Partitions may separate different teams, but there are usually none between team members.

The advantage is that teams can focus on collaboration with their members. They’re free from distractions outside the team. Discussions and brainstorming can happen on the fly without setting up special meetings.

This can lead to feelings of disconnect though with other teams in the company. There’s very little cross-departmental communication on a daily basis. General meetings would have to be scheduled more often.

Having said that, this is a great layout for software/app development and video game development companies.

Nomadic

This is probably the most minimalist style of them all. There are no workstations anywhere. Instead, the entire office is a common area of couches, lounge chairs, and shared tables. Everyone works off of laptops, tablets, and smartphones. They get everything wirelessly from the cloud or company servers.

With this set-up, technology is fully embraced to streamline company operations. The lack of barriers for staff also create lots of potential for creative collaborations. Spontaneous conversations are not only possible, but also necessary to find out how they can help one another. Another benefit is that infrastructure and capital costs are significantly lowered.

Of course, this means that privacy is hard to come by in the office. The lack of a dedicated workstation often leads to a lack of a day-start routine. That can be a major cause for drop in productivity.

Even so, web development or online companies may like this kind of work environment.

 

Hybrid office

It’s difficult to pigeon-hole companies as strictly closed office or open office. A particular office layout may appeal to your company operations, but your company culture may have other needs. The reality is that most companies opt for a hybrid office set-up, with elements of both closed and open offices.

 

However you mix-and-match your office layouts, just don’t forget to create an inviting office space.

 

Quality is the result of rigorous testing from design down to the manufacturing process. That’s what you can expect with luxury kitchen appliances. For example, Miele goes as far as to run silk stockings over their appliances to make sure there aren’t any unseen rough edges. Sub-Zero and Wolf put their appliances through extreme conditions to test their durability.

 

Luxury kitchen appliances are for home chefs who know what features will complement their cooking style and habits. They know what they need to create their signature gourmet dishes. If this sounds like you or if you’re on your way there, these are the latest features to consider:

 

Cooktop

Modular cooktops are where it’s at when you want to customize the kitchen to your cooking preferences. You can modify your cooktop with electric/gas/induction elements, fryers, grills, steamers, and even teppanyaki modules. You should also get cooktops with dual-zone elements so you don’t have to worry what size of cookware to use. Cooktops with a smart surface allow you to change heat power/location simply by sliding your cookware to a different cooking area.

 

Dishwasher

At the luxury level, dishwashers vie for the top spot through speed and efficiency. This results in variations on deep-cleaning with pressurized multi-directional jets and evenly circulated air from heat elements. The target is clean and dry dishes in one hour or less. Premium dishwashers also come with built-in water filtration systems as well as automatic sensors for more efficient power and water levels.

 

Range

The top-quality ranges are all about controllable power and versatility. Dual-fuel ranges and dual-stacked burners are a must for precision heat control. You should be able to customize the stovetop combination of gas burners, electric plates, French plaque, lava-rock grill, and reversible griddles. You’ll also want one gas and one electric oven on the bottom with one of them a steam-convection combo. Then top it off with Wi-Fi connectability and built-in temperature probes for remote-controlled heat settings.

 

Range hood

For range hoods, first decide whether you want ducted or ductless. For air quality, go with ducted; for installation convenience, go with ductless. What comes after is a juggle of features to balance highest fan efficiency with lowest noise level. Then there are the cosmetic designs – lots of them! You can choose from designs like wall chimney, island, built-in, under-cabinet, or integrated. You can even get some that are disguised as a piece of art or as part of a light fixture.

 

Refrigerator

If you like to have lots of fresh ingredients on hand, get a refrigerator that’s restaurant-grade in both temperature control and size. You also need separate compressors and evaporators to set different cooling temperatures for each compartment. That’s to ensure you cover the broad range of fresh ingredient cooling and humidity needs. Also, smart fridge doors are the future. Some have tinted glass panels that’ll turn transparent with a knock so you can see inside even with the door closed. Others have a touchscreen that can serve as a communication/entertainment system.

 

Don’t forget that you also have the option of integrated looks for your appliances. Some brands offer custom front panels or flush builds so your appliances can blend into your kitchen design. And, of course, be prepared to allocate at least 14% of your kitchen design-build budget to appliances. It’s worth it though when the end result is the ultimate luxury kitchen of your dreams.

 

Contrary to popular belief, dining rooms are making a comeback in modern hones. 73% of responses in the Home Buyer Reference survey of January 2017 viewed the dining room as “essential or desirable” (National Association of Home Builders).

 

Why the resurgence in popularity? Well, these may be some of the reasons:

 

Family oasis in a hectic lifestyle

It’s tough living in modern life sometimes. It’s not so much that modern life is more difficult than life in the past. It can’t be with the sheer amount of technology around us to make our lives easier. It’s just that we’re so occupied by that technology sometimes that we lose sight of ourselves and one another.

It’s most apparent during mealtimes. Ever since the introduction of TV dinners in the 1950s, family meals have slowly descended into an everyone-for-themselves rush to a flickering screen.

Bringing back the dining room is one way to step back from the brink. The beauty of a dining room is that, by design, its only purpose is gathering everyone around to sit down for a meal. There are no TV screens or computer monitors or distractions of any other kind. It’s just the family, friends, food, and the conversation in front of you. It gives everyone a chance to re-learn how to focus on the present and how to be mindful to one another.

No matter how busy everyone’s schedules are, it’s nice to know there’s a constant like family dinners in the dining room to depend on.

 

Healthier eating

A study done in 2013 concluded that not paying attention to your meal may add to weight gain. Howard LeWine, M.D., of Harvard Health Publications elaborates more in that article: “For example, after you start eating, it takes 20 minutes or so before the brain begins to start sending out ‘I’m full’ or ‘I’m not hungry anymore’ signals that turn off appetite. If you are hurrying or not paying attention, it’s easy to take in many more calories than you need in 20 minutes.”

So when you have everyone taking meals in the distraction-free environment of a dining room, you’re promoting a healthier eating habit. You can even take it a step further by asking everyone to leave their cell phones at the entrance of the dining room. That’s crucial in this day and age when people focus so much on waiting for the next notification ping on their phones to arrive.

 

Clear separation of activity zones

While open-concept plans are meant to increase opportunities for family interaction, they’ve also diminished the amount of personal space everyone occasionally needs. How many times have you felt like you had nowhere to go except your bedroom because one of your family members were entertaining guests in the mega kitchen-living-room space?

A dining room allows them to chat long into the night while you can still relax in front of the living room TV in the evening. You can actually have some personal time without feeling trapped.

 

Fashion statement in the middle of your home

People used to dismiss dining rooms because they pictured a stuffy room with hardwood monstrosities you can’t wait to be excused from. But what if it doesn’t have to be that way?

In the open-concept areas, your interior decoration choices are limited because everything has to blend in together. In an enclosed dining room though, it can be its own little world.

You can make it as eccentric in style as you want. In fact, that’s how you can break free of the stereotypical dining room image. Here is the room where you can let your personal style shine while making it both modern and cozy. It’ll certainly be a conversation piece when you’re entertaining guests.

 

All this doesn’t mean the dining room can only be used for family meals. Feel free to give it another purpose during the day! Just make sure you can quickly reset it back to a dining room when dinner’s ready.

 

 

Running a business is very labour-intensive and green initiatives are often the last thing on management’s mind. But if you’re investing in your office renovation already, take the opportunity to put in place these green initiatives to make your office stand out as an environmentally conscious one:

 

Leafy building roof

A leafy building roof offers many green benefits, unlike a leaky building roof. There’s a lot of unused space on a building rooftop. What if you can turn that space into a natural insulator and air purifier that prolongs the life of your roof?

That’s what a green roof can do for your office building. The plants on the roof also retain rainwater, much of which would have run off to add more stress to the sewer system. What’s more, a green roof create a safe haven for birds that often have limited habitat options in the city. This will turn your rooftop into a tranquil spot for staff breaks or meetings. You can even start a community vegetable garden up there for your employees.

 

Energy-efficient office machines

The office machines are what make your business hum along so you’ll make a big difference with energy-efficient ones. A good place to start is to only purchase and install office machines with the ENERGY STAR symbol. From there, you can optimize the settings for maximum power-saving without hindering your office operations. When possible, get multifunction machines to cut electricity consumption.

 

Paperless filing system

Let’s face it, most documents don’t really need to be printed out. With the ease of cloud storage and decreasing costs of high-capacity servers these days, everything can be secured electronically. Set up a central knowledge management system where all company documents – from meeting agendas to office policies – can be stored digitally and organized by folders or tags. You can either build your own system or use a ready-made corporate one designed for this very purpose. Research the pros and cons of each product and find the one that best suits your business needs.

Have your staff share documents by linking to the original copy on the knowledge management system, rather than attaching copies to emails. This will lower the temptation to print out the attachments and also makes sure that everyone always gets the most up-to-date version of the document. If people absolutely have to print something, make double-sided printing the default setting on all computers and office machines.

One more thing: emails are actually not very efficient in carrying out discussions. They clog up server space and create more temptations for printing. Instead, use a chat system like Slack to get input from staff. If you don’t want to use a third-party app, you can build your own secure system or use a different proprietary software hosted on your own servers.

 

Ban single-use disposable products

Single-serve coffee machines are notorious for the incredible amount of waste they produce with those coffee pods. The only reason they’re popular is that they provide flavoured cups of coffee that are slightly better tasting than the regular coffee. But what if you stock your coffee room with the good stuff instead? Pretty sure your staff will enjoy fair-trade organic coffee from a batch brewer just as much, if not more. And you’re doing your part for the world with your coffee bean choice!

While you’re at it, eliminate styrofoam/paper cups from your office. Provide re-usable water bottles/cups for all your staff instead. You can even have them all printed with your company logo to reinforce your company image.

 

Recycling and compost program

First, check if your city already has a municipal recycling and/or compost program you can register your office for. If not, find out if there are any companies in town that will regularly collect recycling and/or compost from your office. Compost collecting companies are usually hard to find though. Use the compost for your green roof if you have one set up.

 

Organized carpooling or public transit benefits

Instead of everyone driving to work on their own and adding to the city’s carbon emissions, take the lead on organizing a carpooling system. Another option is to encourage public transit use by offering public transit tickets or passes to your staff.

 

Green committee

Finally, set up a “Green Committee” in your office that can look after managing all the above initiatives as well as coming up with new ideas to make your office eco-friendly.

 

So you’ve got the party started with Part 1 of this series already. Remember that your whole goal is to create an unforgettable experience for your guests from start to finish.

 

Now it’s time to introduce the main acts and headliners to close out the show:

 

Covered dining patio

Nothing beats dining out in the open with the sunlight all around you and the breeze in your hair. It’s even more appetizing when you bring fine dining outdoors. Set out a full-length banquet table and chairs on the patio, ready to host dinner parties. And with a roof over top, you’ll get the intimacy for dinners and deep conversations to stretch long into the night. Make sure the tables and chairs are of weather-resistant materials like teak, wicker, or cast iron. As for the upholstery fabrics, here’s your chance to start the colour accent scheme you want in the backyard.

 

Outdoor kitchen and bar

Well, if you’re going to have a fancy meal out on the patio, why not prepare the meal outside, too? And we’re not talking about just a BBQ grill here. Go all out and put in a full kitchen with a gas-powered stove and grill. Bonus points for a pizza oven, too! Hook up plumbing to the outdoor kitchen so that you can have a working sink. Heck, might as well throw in a mini-fridge to hold fresh ingredients as you’re cooking.

For food preparation, install a durable countertop. Build in extra storage in the base cabinets to hold utensils and dishes. Right next to it all should be a bar counter complete with a wine cooler, icemaker, and glasses.

The best part about having a full outdoor kitchen and bar? You can keep playing host to your guests without having to run back inside to check on the food all the time.

 

Keep the party going

After dinner, it’s great to be able to step away from the table and chat somewhere else over drinks. This is where a gazebo or pavilion would come in handy. Your guests can then continue enjoying the night air at a new hangout spot. Light up the area with some lantern ambience or strung lights. You can also have a sunken firepit patio nearby for those who want to stay warm. And for those with happy feet, an audio system and projector screen at the gazebo/pavilion will get a dance party pumping far into the night.

 

These rear additions allow you to throw an epic party. But don’t forget they’re also for you. They’ll encourage you to make more excuses to relax there on your down times. You can do a lot more in life with frequent breaks.

 

But let’s go back to your guests as they slowly call it a night with weary but contented smiles on their faces. Who can forget a party like that? You’ll stay on top of their minds for a long time. And when opportunities come knocking, it’ll be your door they come to first.

 

The life of royals is within your grasp. Your luxury custom home is much more than the culmination of the dream home designs spinning in your head ever since you were little. It’s also an investment in your social stature. At this level, your social stature becomes the new capital for you to pursue new opportunities. And it all starts with entertaining guests at your new lavish digs.

 

The interior of your home is your guests’ first exposure to your inner circle. The most memorable parties though are always the ones held in the backyard. Besides, when the season of hot summer evenings begin, who can resist spending time outdoors?

 

Luxury homes should be designed to take people on a curated journey that shows off all the best parts of the house. Your guests may already be impressed with the interior. You just have to build up their anticipation for what’s to come next when they see your backyard.

 

This is Part 1 of how you can leave a lasting impression on your guests, from the moment they enter the backyard to the moment they say good night:

 

Terraced natural landscaping

If you have a backyard that’s on a slope, this is a great way to create levels for different activities. The trend is to make all the features part of the natural environment with organic flow from one area to the next. This involves using natural materials as much as possible. Like wood or rugged stone finishes on backyard structures and low walls. Or paving pathways with flagstone. It also means following the curve of the land and minimizing sharp angles whenever you can. By doing so, you can even subtly work your preferred progression of activities into the design of your backyard.

You can still get the same effect even with a flat backyard. All you have to do is slightly raise the levels of certain zones to give off a terraced impression. If you prefer to keep everything on the same level though, then just make the pathways between more distinct.

 

Sectioned pool

Pools are one of the must-have backyard features that will add to your home value. Rather than the ordinary rectangular pool though, go with an irregularly shaped one that has custom sections. Inset spas and tanning ledges are popular pool sections in addition to the main swimming zone. If space is too limited for a long enough pool to swim laps, install counterflow jets at one end for endless swimming in place. You can also separate the sections at different heights and connect them with waterfall curtains.

Staying with the natural landscape theme, blend the pool with its surroundings with a vanishing edge. A vanishing edge also fits nicely in a minimalist design. That way, you get the optical illusion of the pool popping out of a travertine, Italian marble, or coral stone pool surround.

 

It’s already a good start to the party with your guests admiring the landscaping and splashing in the pool. But that’s only the first half! Stay awhile for Part 2.