Basic HTML Version
www.binfo.co.uk
magazine
36
Office design
process, unnecessarily increasing its carbon
footprint; the existing office design failed
to reflect the capabilities and ethos of
Autodesk or the sophisticated nature of its
software; and, as regional facilities manager
Donna Bourne explains, the combination
of flexible working and an office lay-out
spread over three floors was having a
negative impact on staff.
“Sometimes, there were only five
people in the office and people on different
floors could go for long periods without
seeing each other, so morale was a bit low
and there was no atmosphere,” she said.
Taking advantage of a lease break at 10
years, Autodesk decided to move 1 mile
down the road and lease the first floor of
a bright two-storey, steel and glass office
block built around a large central courtyard.
With a footprint of 21,000 square feet, the
new offices are about 25% smaller than
the old premises.
Low occupancy
A two-week workplace survey by DEGW
showing that Autodesk’s desk space was
occupied just 31% of the time formed the
basis of a new office design created by
Morgan Lovell to support remote working,
improve collaboration between employees
and create the buzz and excitement
needed to attract and retain the best staff.
A further requirement was to design
a sustainable workplace that qualified for
LEED certification. How Autodesk has
achieved this is covered in more detail in
the autumn issue of
Sustainable Times
.
Reflecting the mobile work styles of
head office staff, Morgan Lovell reduced
the number of assigned desks by 10%
to 92 and introduced a greater variety
of shared spaces for sales people and
others who spend most of their time
outside the office, including touchdown
points and hot desks at a ratio of 3:1
(mobile worker:desk). This still represents
a generous allocation of desk space
and Bourne confirms that Autodesk has
“never not had enough free desks”.
In addition, there are a variety of
alternative work spaces for teams and
individuals, including bookable meeting
rooms; glass-walled project rooms; phone
booths for private conversations; and
two-person quiet rooms for concentrated
work – “Before one person would occupy
a meeting room for 18 people,” says
Bourne. Acoustic sofas from orangebox
provide semi-private space for informal
conversations, while a Steelcase media
room provides an area where people can
work together and share computer-based
material.
For more formal conferences and to
reduce the need for international travel,
there is a $200,000 immersive, life-size
Cisco videoconferencing room – one of
50 used globally by Autodesk – that is in
use more than 60% of the time.
Distinct neighbourhoods
The open plan office is divided into
four neighbourhoods, with buffer zones
between each one to break up the space
and provide a transition between working
cultures. Each of the neighbourhoods
features a unique mix of working
spaces chosen according to the needs
of occupants. Thus Neighbourhood 1,
housing the IT department, product
support and consultancy, has a high
proportion of allocated desks; and
Neighbourhood 3, housing the sales
teams, has a large number of hot desks
for mobile workers.
At the front of the building on either
side of the main entrance are separate
communal/public areas. On one side is
a restaurant and adjoining conference
room that can be opened up to create
an entertainment space for 200 people;
and on the other, staff showers/
...continued