It takes many parties to create an office fit-out, including the landlord, leasing agent and designers. But the way workspaces are created can leave out one important body of stakeholders: the staff.

The practice of fully fitting out a workspace before the business has had a chance to understand the building and how it wants to use it is wrong, said Dominic Dugan, creative director at design-build company Oktra. 

“It’s too easy to fall into the aesthetic trap, colouring in before you’ve thought about performance,” Dugan said. “To really engage an occupier and entice them to stay for longer, we need to leave room for the human to own the solution, for the occupier to make their space their own.”

When an occupier signs a lease, often the first step to moving in is to design the fit-out. On average, this takes about four months, Dugan said, and it can be longer if the office needs to be 100% complete before the occupier moves in. 

To a landlord, this is a void period: time when generally no rent is paid. 

Another challenge created by designing a fit-out before a tenant has experienced the space is that there is often a disconnect between the design on paper and the way the office is used, Dugan said. This will only become apparent once the business is in situ.

Spending capital on a fit-out that isn’t properly used can be costly. London is the second-most-expensive city in the world for office fit-out, with the average cost sitting at $5,872 per square metre. 

The alternative is to deliver the space to 70% complete, then finish the workspace once the business is in place and has a better understanding of what it needs, Dugan said. 

Oktra works with clients to create adaptable spaces that leave room for an occupier to shape the correct environment. This also provides an opportunity for the tenant to move in more quickly.

“When a business says, ‘I don’t know what I want,’ I don’t buy it,” Dugan said. “They might not know in its entirety, but even smaller businesses know enough about themselves to use that space designed at 70% and then discover that final 30% once they are there.”

He cited the example of meeting rooms, which are often changed by an occupier when they move in. 

Generally, a meeting room is designed with a table in the middle, surrounded by chairs, but a business might want the room to be designed with remote-first in mind. If designing the audiovisual equipment is left to the final 30% of design, the tenant might choose to install a screen on the wall and put the table up against it.

Another example is the front-of-house experience. 

“A tech organisation might choose to activate the reception area with a barista, to deformalise it so it becomes an island for staff,” Dugan said. “If you construct to 70% complete, it’s easy to change the use, because the infrastructure was considered from Day 1.”

Design flexibility requires a commitment to the base infrastructure, Dugan said. A big part of making spaces genuinely adaptable is investing in good-quality products in the first place so things can be relocated and reused rather than removed and replaced. 

A fit-out design might have adaptable partition solutions that can be moved without contaminating base build finishes, meaning minimal disruption to the occupier and a greater chance of business continuity. Investing in high-quality products such as moveable floors and glazed partitions increases the likelihood they can be reused, he said. 

Oktra often creates flexibility that can be maintained even once fit-out is complete, giving the business space to adapt as people’s needs change, Dugan said. This includes using systems such as adaptable desks and designing areas with multiple uses, from an all-company meeting to an evening event.

However, for this to be a success comes down to the business culture.

“We find that staff only feel able to use a space such as a breakout area in the way that it has been designed once they have seen a leader do so,” he said. “Leaders have a job to do: They need to continue the commitment to the workplace by demonstrating how it should be used.”

This article was produced in collaboration between Oktra and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.