Roden also put up posters to remind everyone to wash their hands frequently. Roden and Stanford both opted to place hand sanitisers at each desk. “However, we have PPE available from the front desk on request,” says Adir. In line with the UK Government’s advice, team members and visitors will not be required to wear personal protective equipment (PPE). Hand sanitiser dispensers are also installed in all frequently used touch areas, such as near lift buttons and doorways.

“It keeps surfaces virus-free for up to 30 days and is currently successfully tested and used by TfL and the NHS. “Our procedure releases a fine mist of a chemical cleaning solution into the air, which then spreads throughout the space and settles on every surface, such as keyboards, door handles and light switches,” she says. In Adir’s offices, hospital-grade sanitising is being introduced. Roden says they’ve introduced Perspex barriers between desks in their office.Ĭonnect with other professionals, see their latest projects and follow them on Houzz “Now when clients come in, they’ll go to the left side of the office only, while staff will all be on the right, meaning they don’t need to cross into each other’s spaces,” she explains. She also thought about how staff and visitors will move around the office. “The desk is also larger than it would otherwise have been to help maintain that distance.” “It used to be more face-to-face, but now there’s more space around it, so someone could easily be two metres from the reception staff,” she says.

Stanford also installed a taller reception desk. Instead, they’ll be at a diagonal with the next person and at least two metres apart,” she says. “Now everyone pretty much has two desks instead of one – at a width of 240 centimetres – and no one sitting opposite them. Stanford has increased desk sizes and the spaces between them. These are returning to normal, observing social distancing measures, and having meetings outside – weather permitting!” This has been the real shift in working patterns for us since lockdown was introduced. “As a director, 50 percent of my time is spent on-site or visiting clients in their homes. “The office is only part of our working environment, though,” she adds. “Return to working full-time in the office will be a gradual process,” says Roden, “a lthough sometimes it’s necessary for us to come in for printing, admin and strategy planning meetings. “We have remote access working set up, so everyone can access drawing files, and we all have laptops, so working from home wasn’t a new concept for us.”Īt the moment, the team is main ly still working from home. “ We already had in place a flexible working ethic,” says Roden. There’s a similar arrangement at Kimble Roden Architects. These include thermal cameras to identify anyone entering the building with a raised body temperature.Īlthough the Kia Designs office is large, staff have organised their home-working schedules so that only four of them are ever in at the same time. The WELL Building Standard specifies how the design and function of buildings can be optimised in order to advance human health and wellbeing, and the building will include features that aim to protect workers and visitors from Covid-19. In addition, the company’s newest building, due to open in 2021, has registered to become the UK’s first WELL Platinum-certified flexible office. Tania Adir, who founded and designed the co-working space, Uncommon, which has four sites in London offering a variety of offices, says, “We’ve implemented a number of measures to comply with government guidelines”. Director Emma Roden says, “We’ve kept it simple while following government guidelines”. Kimble Roden Architects’ 30-square-metre office on the outskirts of Manchester is also within a larger managed workspace, with a shared kitchen and sanitary facilities. She surprised her team, who returned in mid-June, with a completely redesigned space, with the focus very much on staff safety. Interior designer Kia Stanford’s company, Kia Designs, has a 92-square-metre office in a larger building in London. Have you adapted your office post-lockdown?

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