Glass is quickly becoming one of the most popular materials in office design these days, and for good reason. Whether you’re conducting a full office overhaul or simply looking for a way to rework your current office layout, the strategic use of glass can benefit a business in many ways – from cost savings to employee morale and productivity.
Here are 4 ways in which glass can improve your office design.
Glass Can Create Cost Savings
The main way in which glass can boost the economic efficiency of your office boils down to a simple equation. More glass means more natural light and more natural heat, in turn reducing the need for artificial light and heat. By implementing glass into your office design, you can actually reduce your business’ carbon footprint and reduce your energy bills as well.
This goes for larger scale redesigns – for instance, removing entire exterior walls of your office space and replacing them with panes of glass – but it can also be easily applied to smaller redesigns as well with the implementation of interior glass walls. Glass partitions can also be substantially less impactful on your pocketbook than traditional walls and can often be dismantled and reassembled as required, for a quick internal shuffle or even an office relocation.
Glass Walls Reflect Professionalism
From an optical and aesthetic perspective, glass is a sleek material that demonstrates that your business is modern and progressive. The literal transparency of glass can also give your clients the sense that your business operates with honesty and transparency. Walking through your office and seeing workspaces enclosed in glass implies that your company is forthright and that you have nothing to hide.
That said, you can still ensure privacy as needed with patterned tinted, frosted or textured glass.
Glass Boosts Employee Morale and Output
There’s a proven correlation between nature and employee wellbeing. Think of it this way: you probably feel better at work when you have access to natural light. It’s energizing and revitalizing. That’s why people often go as far as to buy “happy lights” for the darker winter months or when they work in an area without direct access to a window.
Glass walls and partitions will also increase communication by enhancing your team’s visibility to one another. On the other hand, they also provide a degree of privacy because they are acoustically sound which means they eliminate distracting noise and allow employees to keep their focus.
In a private executive office, a glass wall can be a welcome connection to your company. By confining solid walls to the inside portion of the office and swapping out any exterior-facing walls with glass, you can be afforded a level of privacy when needed while removing the feeling of seclusion created by four solid walls.
In today’s office design, company leaders are often flipping concepts of the past on their heads. It used to be that private workspaces encompassed the outside of the office and hogged all the exterior glass. Of late, there’s a movement towards reversing this –putting communal or open-concept workspaces near the windows and pulling the private workspaces towards the inside of office to ensure the majority of the company’s staff have access to windows and natural light rather than reserving it for a select few.
Glass is Durable and Adaptable
Traditional office walls get scuffed, weathered and worn much quicker than glass does. Glass can look pristine for much longer than traditional materials. It also integrates seamlessly with a number of other design materials because of its simplicity – from wood to vinyl to fabric to metal and wood.
If you’re looking for a way to revamp your office design, you should consider incorporating glass. It looks great, it opens up the feel of the space and it literally breaks down barriers. It can make your employees happier and it can even save your business money.
