29 . 6 . 11
The creative process of coming up with an elegant and functional interior design requires systematic methods carefully mastered by an interior design consultant.
The process involved is so systematic that proper research of the design is made beforehand. Once the design is conceptualized, the proposed structure is then visually integrated into the interior space for analysis and to ascertain that clients are satisfied. The interior design consultant is responsible for carefully balancing the constraints involving customer satisfaction and goals, and design functionality and safety.
What To Expect From An Interior Design Consultant
The consultant is responsible for the planning of an interior space. He creates the interior design according to the taste and style of the client. By analyzing what the client wants, the consultant should be able to propose a theme consistent within the architectural context. For instance, when a client decides on the dominant color of the interior space, the consultant offers further options like appropriate color schemes so as to avoid color monotony.
An Interior Design Consultant Does More Than The Planning
With the design already visualized, he also directs and implements the formulated interior design to ensure that every detail is up to code. The right materials to be used for the project are also decided by the consultant. After the project is finished, the designer follows up on the client to address concerns that may arise.
When To Hire An Interior Design Consultant
The services of an interior design consultant are necessary if one is planning for major interior constructions or renovations. Most often, when clients know the style they want but do not know the right kind of furniture to put in, the design consultant with his knowledge on architectural design would intervene by proposing several types of furniture for the clients to choose from.
22 . 6 . 11
Whether you are remodeling or opening a retail store, you may want to hire a retail designer. A retail designer may also work with an architect to make sure that your merchandising plan fits with your space in the most profitable way. A retail designer may also go by the title interior designer, visual marketing specialist or merchandising designer.
Companies that offer these services or that employee the professionals will often have a team of specialists work on a design that works best for you.
When you work with a retail design team, they should always keep your profits in mind. They will not give you an extravagant design that is not very user friendly. They should consider your space, your products, your inventory, your budget and your customers. Retail designers can often come up with innovative designs that you haven’t thought of yet.
It can help you to take a fresh approach to merchandising that result in profits.
Retail and visual merchandisers are specialists in determining your clients’ needs. They anticipate what your clients will want and design the store around them. They will also want to catch the consumer’s eye and create new wants and desires along the way. All of this can be done by someone with a keen eye who does a lot of research.
Visual merchandisers will create the lure to get customers in your store. This often starts with the window displays. Mannequins and lighting designs can help to draw in customers. Once inside, the products need to be arranged in a logical fashion so that customers can easily feel their way around the store.
Your showcases should be strategically placed to guide customers deeper and deeper into the store. Impulse buy displays should finish out the design. They are generally located in areas where customers will be passing once they’ve decided to leave the store. Near the register and near the door are good places to make that last ditch effort in selling a few more items.
If you have a small space, a retail design team my suggest using the walls to maximize your display area. Gridwall and slatwall are great for managing a large amount of merchandise in a small area. You can constantly update your displays.
Spread them out for a more spacious feel, or arrange them close together to advertise just how much merchandise you have to offer. Gridwall and slatwall displays allow you to face your merchandise outward where it can be more easily seen, even from outside your store.
Hiring a retail design team will help you to purposely and diligently place each type of merchandise where it will be most profitable. You can get advice on what type of retail displays, like gridwall or slatwall, will work best for you. Professional opinions on merchandising are generally more profitable than guessing what is best for your type of store, so the investment could really pay off.
15 . 6 . 11
The design of your retail store can have a lot of bearing on your sales. Building a loyal customer base is so important in today’s world on cyber shopping and big department stores. Boutiques have a certain charm when they’re designed well and this can give your customers a reason to make a special trip to your store.
The goal, of course is to make more money. To do that, you need to carefully plan the “path” of your boutique so that customers have the experience that you plan for them.
1) Think about what you want customers to immediately feel when they approach your store. You’re in luck if you have front windows in which to display your favorite merchandise. Using mannequins has been long since proven to encourage people to buy.
This is not only because you can show them what clothes look like when worn, or because you can showcase many garments and accessories at once. It’s because you can actually answer a lot of the questions that need to be answered in a person’s mind before they buy at a single glance.
2) Think about what someone might be asking themselves as they consider shopping in your store and answer those questions either in your window displays or as soon as they come in. One, if someone is interested in a boutique, they probably want to find unique items or brands.
Make sure that they immediately see that within the first second or two of laying eyes on your store. Sidewalk or outside displays are a great way to do this.
3) The next question on their mind may be price. Does your store front and displays match your prices? You don’t want someone to get excited about something they see only to be immediately disappointed by the price. Try to communicate the price through the décor and arrangement of your boutique.
4) Now, the next question on a person’s mind will be something like, “how will this garment make me feel?” Communicate as much feeling as possible, either with your mannequins’ poses or the décor surrounding your items. A snowy scene with a campfire communicates coziness, a city scene may communicate cutting edge fashion, and so on.
5) The next thing people want to feel when they shop in a boutique is that it will be interesting to shop around. People avoid department stores and visit boutiques to have a pleasurable and enlightening shopping experience. Make sure that you have unique items scattered around the store.
Have things arranged in a “path” that leads the person from one interesting item to the next. Avoid crowding your clothing racks close together so that people stay comfortable, even if the store has a lot of shoppers. A clothing rack should not be overfilled, either, so that people can easily see what you have to offer without having to work to dig through too many items.
13 . 6 . 11
DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION is like a pair of shoes that you can never be separated. It won’t be functional if you lost the other pair for they are meant to be together until they fade away.
Design plays a vital cog in our society for it stands for people, our culture, identity and it defines our personality. But a DESIGN can be USELESS if it is not properly EXECUTED and realized.
In almost eleven years in the business of interior design, challenges are certainly inevitable. It is just how you take, handle and it is certainly how you approach them. But definitely, having a passion for what you’re doing really makes a difference.
We design for people, for all types of people. We find our worth and value in this industry because of them. In every design that we’re doing, it is them who we give importance with for we will be a FAILURE if we ignore them, and definitely, people will ignore designs that ignore people.
Being a designer is really tough. You have to think of how to create a fully functional place with a suitable mixture of moods for all types of people without sacrificing its aesthetics and theories.
Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society-Queenstown Multi-Service Centre is one of our challenging projects for this year 2011. Knowing the fact that the institution deals with the charity organizations, our design should coincide with their everyday traffic flow and operational systems.
We are definitely challenged on how to make the place have this energetic vibrant mood where you can stay with suitable for the elderly, families, children and professionals yet doesn’t require for higher costs.
Colors should make balance to each people inside. So we put the three variations: from light to medium, medium to dark. We created a playful energetic mood for the children and a warm feeling for the older people. We believe that putting such colors can add motivation to the people who will stay there.
Not just the colors, but the usage of spaces. We created a space that is totally functional suitable for all ages.
Aside from creating brilliant ideas, our service to clients doesn’t stop there. We helped them succeeded in choosing the right contractor for design execution.
Finding such contractor is indeed important. It’s like finding the right weapon against a certain battle, for contractor is the one who build and make your design comes into proper realization.
If you will not manage and sort things out properly, what will happen to your design? It will just be killed and left on one side amidst the efforts and passion you’ve poured.
Being a designer and a project manager, it is our duty to guard and make things easier and beneficial to everyone. We can never neglect each factors involved in making designs and building them and put into reality. We should always think of the reason why we, designers and builders, are existing here in this industry.
We are here not just to be served, but TO SERVE—serve the community with all the best to create a better place to live with.
13 . 6 . 11
When renovating a restaurant, many things are to be considered before plans are made and dates are set. Restaurant owners however, do not always see eye-to-eye with interior designers; never quite knowing whether the interior designers are simply money grabbing, or genuinely giving owners constructive criticism, that visions are perhaps too far-fetch.
Design versus functionality is a significant problem for renovation teams, some visions are too far gone to turn ambitious designs into reality, and maybe the only way owners are going to get what they really want is having an abundance of money, which they just have not got.
Of course, everyone wants something more than they can afford; going to a car dealer for example, always leaves car owners stumped for cash on over-spending, with no real profit other than satisfying their own ego.
Whereas interior designers look after clients, and when the clients are content, the money starts to appear. Not every dream interior can be built unfortunately, in the same way we cannot have everything in life, however interior designers are there to offer solutions and suggest alternative methods. When the dream is too far-fetch, the functionality gets lost in the process.
Functionality is often compromised when visions are finally fabricated, and when customer needs are not met, figures drop dramatically, leaving not only a hole in your pocket, but your reputation spiralling down the drain.
Simple alterations to the original design can prevent this from happening, such as changes in materials, colour schemes, and most importantly, asking what the customers really wants first.
Restaurants that dramatically change their appearance, could be deceiving new potential customers. Changes to the complete layout, colour scheme, and seating areas, could potentially prove difficult to determining your business, when walking by. Keeping to the basics, and merely letting people know that you are a restaurant, is the best thing possible.
Customers will be less reluctant to come in and take a browse if they know who you are and what you are selling. The worst thing possibly done is change the interior so much that it is unrecognisable.
Location is vital to the proposal; there is no advantage in designing a sophisticated and modish restaurant if it is squeezed between a fish and chip shop that is tarnished and a newsagent that is coated in graffiti. Buildings are intended to represent their surroundings and in some cases enhance it.
Finally is the intended audience; if the restaurant is aimed for both men and women, then the interior moderation should be neutral, so they equally enjoy going to that particular restaurant.
Interior dreams can be transformed into a reality, which is certain, however specific dreams need to edged towards functionality before reality can be captured. Do not get carried away by the dream, stick to what you know, and what works well. Leave it to the experts to guide you along the right path.
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Restaurant renovations are so hip that The Food Network actually chronicles restaurant makeovers on prime time television. The moral to the story is clear: when an eatery hits a plateau, restaurant renovations can be like the magic bean in Jacks infamous stalk. Lets face it. Sometimes menu renovations are not enough sometimes you need a complete overhaul.
There are many benefits to restaurant renovations. Restaurant renovations offer you an opportunity to become new again in the minds of customers. Restaurant renovations allow you to reconsider the traffic flow of the restaurant for greater efficiency. Restaurant renovations could even allow you to make better use of your square footage so you can squeeze more guests into your store.
Restaurant renovations can be large or small. Perhaps you found a unique opportunity to take up residence in an historic building on high-trafficked Main Street and need to transform the antiquated interior into a chic eatery. Or maybe you have a much simpler restaurant renovation in mind, like giving the restrooms a facelift or building an exhibition kitchen in the dining area. Creative restaurant renovation possibilities are endless.
In the wake of a natural disaster like hurricanes, tornadoes, fires and floods, restaurant renovations are sometimes unavoidable. However, forward-thinking restaurant owners view the setback as an opportunity. That is exactly what Seor Frogs did when Hurricane Wilma destroyed most of its restaurants literally overnight. Restaurant renovation was not an option, so the owner made the best of a bad situation with creative restaurant design ideas that re-introduced the brand in a fresh way.
Seor Frogs restaurant renovation took the opportunity to rebuild and re-brand at the same time. Seor Frogs has a simple philosophy that directs its employees, its menu, and its restaurant interior design consulting: have fun.
While undergoing a restaurant renovation is nowhere near as fun as relaxing on the beach, which is what most of Seor Frogs guests like to do, the outcome offered an experience for the playful at heart. Indeed, Seor Frogs restaurant renovation communicates a carefree feeling to its guests and encourages that sense of playfulness that characterizes its mascot, a skinny, green frog that dresses in blue jeans and sandals.
The restaurant renovation incorporated fun concepts like miniature put-put golf with a $100 bar tab prize, innertubes in the ceiling, and a hot tub smack dab in the middle of the restaurant. The restaurant renovation even made way for a slide that dumps guests into the lagoon outside the store. Seor Frogs restaurant renovation was no vacation, but the end result draws more vacationers than ever before to this hip eatery.
Whether you are merely renovating a kitchen or are taking the plunge with a complete restaurant renovation, relying on restaurant interior design experts can save you time and money. As with any building renovation there are always surprises along the way. Experienced restaurant designers have the foresight to plan for the challenges and serve up a restaurant renovation that reinvigorates the brand name.
13 . 6 . 11
First, a confession. Despite the hip corporate persona of Red Hat, when I first joined the company everyone had typical cubicle farm workspaces. Sure, there were hints that the company aspired to Google-like coolness: a foosball table, a game room, lots of free junk food. +
But in our daily office-worker lives, we were holed up in a standard maze of shared cubicles. Our idea of “open office design” was to persuade our cubemates to leave the sliding doors open.
For six months, I labored happily in my gray box, content to talk only with my supervisor and my cubemate. So when the department director announced that after the Christmas holiday week, we’d be moving to a new “open” space downstairs, I groaned inwardly.
The cubicle walls were being removed; the department VP and managers would work in the same area as everyone else; and the new space would include lots of nooks and rooms for impromptu collaboration and scheduled design-thinking sessions. As the lone quiet, left-brained web developer among a host of creatives, I was certain this sudden push for collaboration meant I’d never get any work done.
I was mistaken.
According to the 2001 office design study, Offices That Work: Balancing Communication, Flexibility and Cost, “the major reason for an office today is to bring people together: to socialize and share information; to inspire and inform each other; to provide guidance and feedback. Relatively little of the work of most office workers requires deep, individualconcentration for hours at a time.”
As a computer programmer, I was not exempt:
As the literature on computer engineers shows, this is true even for the prototypical job function requiring deep concentration. There do need to be times and places for such work in the office, but whether such places need to be assigned to one person for his or her exclusive use, or requires complete physical separation from others doing the same work, has been challenged by many corporations over the past decade.
Within a month in the new workspace, I knew more about every colleague in my department than I’d learned over the prior half-year. My own role deepened from being a ticket-resolving web monkey to a full-fledged knowledge worker and vital part of the team.
My fears about moving out of my cubicle
1. Without cubicle walls to hide behind, interruptions would be endless.
In one sense, there are more interruptions. Communication is abundant—and more frequent—when you can see your team members. But the rapid flow of information throughout the office actually reduces the email, phone calls, and traditional scheduled meetings needed, according to the study linked earlier.
Surprisingly, increased visual contact actually contributes to fewerunwanted interactions. When you can glance at a coworker and see that they look engaged in a problem or irritated by a phone call, you’re more likely to ask your question later than if you had walked down the hall and already poked your head into their office.
The study also notes:
Our data suggest that individual performance or productivity may be reduced in a given unit of time, while both individual performance and that of their team benefit over the life of the project. In other words, this minute’s interruption can be annoying, but over the life of the project such “interruptions” tend to be seen as contributing to overall success.
2. In an open office design, there would be nowhere to go when I needed to hold a private conversation or think intently without interruption.
A well designed open layout includes places for these tasks. When Cisco redesigned their offices to be more collaboration-friendly and reflect modern work habits, the company opted for a highly flexible design. Only administrative assistants were assigned longterm office desks; no one else has ownership over a particular workspace. Instead they choose the type of workspace they need for a few minutes, hours, or all day:
Cisco employees are increasingly mobile—and less and less working at a particular desk … Throughout the day, employees [select] an appropriate environment to accomplish the task at hand: meeting in a group, participating in a conference call, or working alone on a spreadsheet or project plan.
The Cisco plan includes a quiet area deemed “the library” for work requiring intense concentration and quiet, as well as an etiquette policy, developed by employees along the way, which frames the use of different areas: non-private meetings with one other person should take place in smaller, open seating areas, not a closed conference room, for example.
The decision to change the Cisco office design was made after considerable thought:
Like most companies, Cisco designed its office space under the traditional assumption that employees would work in their own cubicles during regular work hours and would need assigned work spaces with their own desks, PCs, and phones. The result was that meeting rooms were often in short supply, while offices and cubicles remained vacant 65 percent of the time on average.
Nobody would consider building a manufacturing facility that they intended to use just one-third of the time,” says Mark Golan, Cisco vice president for WPR. “And yet that’s what we routinely do with workspace. We realized that assigning resources based on utilization would significantly reduce Cisco real estate costs.” [emphasis added]
3. With an open design, my superiors and coworkers would be constantly scrutinizing my activity. I’d be self-conscious as I went about my work.
When we moved to the open floor plan, I found that I actually had more privacy than before—when I wanted it. Within cubicles, there is a sense of “pseudo-privacy,” where your neighbors pretend not to hear your phone conversations and feel awkward speaking up if they have information that would benefit you.
But in an open office space, you know who is hearing your conversations, and your coworkers feel free to provide input. If you want privacy, you know to hold the conversation in a place designed for it.
In addition, I had not given ample consideration to the value of making eye-contact with colleagues. When you notice someone approaching your desk, you can gauge whether they mean to speak with you or someone else.
You have the opportunity to jot down a final thought or finish a line of code, because you have an extra moment’s notice. And when you’re discussing a problem with a coworker, you can invite others with a glance to join the conversation.
4. With an open office, my coworkers’ annoying habits would be magnified.
Anyone who has worked for a few years has shared cube walls with coworkers with not-so-endearing habits. The one who checks his voicemail on speakerphone. Or chatters loudly and nonstop on her cell phone. Or sings gospel songs. Or paints fingernails. So you can imagine my trepidation at the prospect of the removal of those (somewhat) protective barriers.
What’s interesting is that when people can see their office neighbors, they are far more self-aware. (But if your coworker sings in the conference room during team meetings, you may want to lobby for a desk at the opposite end of the room.)
Unexpected problems
While none of my fears materialized, other problems did surface in our space.
1. Moving day, again?
Now that our department head and other managers could watch the interaction between different coworkers, moving us from one desk to another became an irresistible urge. While my own desk only moved thrice in two years, others seemed to be packing up again just as soon as they’d settled in.
Initially we benefited from the new chemistry and collaboration. After several moves, the cons of instability took over. Perhaps we should have opted for a fully flexible, choose-your-wo
rkspace environment like Cisco.
2. Added mobility requires new technology
Cisco discovered that the needs of mobile knowledge workers are different from stationary employees. Most, if not all workplaces need power outlets to compensate for the short battery life of laptops. The company tried to provide uninterruptible power supplies throughout the building, but as the units beeped after an hour to signal low power, they were highly disruptive.
Cisco is considering a pilot program allowing employees to swap out dying batteries at exchange and recharge stations.
In addition, Cisco used wireless and hardwired phone technologies to give workers the ability to check voicemail and make phone calls from any workstation.
3. Limited number of collaboration areas
We didn’t anticipate the culture shift that accompanied moving into a new space would require more spaces for collaboration. Smaller areas for non-private meetings and a second closed-door conference room would have made our space a bit more usable.
4. Neighbor immigration
Our department, Brand Communications + Design, was the first to receive permission and funds for an open office design. That space included a large, open meeting area with several whiteboards and comfy chairs. As employees from other departments were invited to meet with us, they quickly noticed what vibrant and collaborative meetings sprung from the space.
“Let’s meet over in the Brand Comm space” became a common refrain for anyone looking to hold an informal and insightful meeting. Unfortunately, our space was not designed to host meetings for multiple departments, and creating similar spaces in those departments would have been a valued decision.
5. Shifting requirements
An open office design must be regarded as a work-in-progress. As new needs emerge, the space must be able to accommodate. At Cisco, this meant adding personal lockers for purses or lunches, and larger filing cabinets for employees whose jobs required them to store forms or records. Within the Brand Communications + Design space at Red Hat, the function of several closed-door rooms has changed over the years, serving as everything from a video recording studio to a library to a temporary office.
13 . 6 . 11
From yoga rooms to collaboration spaces, how to get the most from your workspace and your teams.
Trends in modern office design
From yoga rooms to collaboration spaces, how to get the most from your workspace and your teams.
Mobility, flexibility, sustainability—these three key drivers are utterly reshaping offices. The headline news from leading interior decorators and designers?
We have only just begun to see workplaces that reflect the needs of the 21st-century workforce, as well as the impact of spiraling real-estate costs in many city centers and the growing realization that high energy costs are here to stay. But an even bigger underlying change may also be prodding companies to rethink their office spaces: “Offices are no longer seen as simply a liability,” says Frank Pettinati, regional discipline leader in the Chicago office of national design firm Perkins+Will. “Offices now are emerging as key branding tools.”
Workspaces are also “crucial in employee retention,” says Karen Daroff of Daroff Design in Philadelphia, Pa. Who wants to return to an unpleasant office day after day? Organizations have begun to realize that employees are much more likely to stay at a job when they like where they work.
Until just a few years ago, offices were widely viewed as money poured down a sinkhole. Now, as leading companies win cascading recognition for maintaining cool, fun offices—consider Google, whose Mountain View, Calif., headquarters offer bike paths, gourmet cafeterias and a yoga room—others want to hop aboard this trend.
Offices are no longer just about where we work, explains Tobie Nepo, a commercial interior designer for DRS Architects in Pittsburgh, Pa. Today, they also reflect something important about who we are—and that means clear thinking has to go into creating tomorrow’s workspace.
Less Privacy, More Collaboration
So what does all this mean for your workspace? First, the bad news: Private, enclosed offices are disappearing, and cubicles are getting smaller (“Most now are 7′x7′, down from 8′x8′,” says John Hamilton, a designer with Grand Rapids, Mich.–based Steelcase).
In addition, “open sight lines will predominate,” says Hamilton, and that means partitions are getting lower, because research shows that cubes feel bigger when they offer a panoramic view. What happens to the freed-up space? “We are seeing bigger common spaces, more places for collaborations,” explains Hamilton.
This trend has grown from the awareness that fewer of us are genuinely solo workers. More of us work in teams and informal small groups. As a result, effective workplaces will feature places where two, four and six workers can settle in on the fly for a 20-minute discussion, without the formality of reserving space. These spaces are there, waiting to be used—and in the 21-century office, designers say, we will use them.
Shared ownership of “private” office spaces also is becoming common as a mobile workforce sees more employees on the road more often, says Diane Taitt, a partner at Bethesda, Md.–based GTM Architects. Each employee will have a private pedestal—meaning a secure place to stow personal belongings—but the basic office space (chair, worktop and so forth) will likely be shared at businesses seeking to maximize their real-estate spending.
Great Chairs Pay Off
Roy Huebner, a senior account executive at Wolcott Architecture Interiors in Culver City, Calif., says that “great chairs” are emerging as an office must-have. The Herman Miller Aeron chair may be the category leader (in both comfort and price, at retail costs of $700+ per chair), but there are many competitors at similar price points.
The payoff of a good chair, designers say, is that workers put in their longest hours just sitting. A comfortable, ergonomic chair lets them work smarter and longer. Adds Huebner, “It’s money that delivers a return.”
Offices also reflect new business realities. Fewer have guest chairs, says Huebner, in part because workspaces are smaller, but mainly because collaborative spaces have multiplied. In the meantime, he adds, desk space is shrinking, because small-footprint flat-screen monitors have largely dislodged enormous, old CRT monitors. Slender desktops also mean that offices can shrink without the occupants noticing much of a difference.
Flexibility—for instance, setting furniture on casters so it can be rolled out of sight, and building workstations with desktops that adjust for height—is another critical element in the 21-century office, says Nepo. When two, three or possibly more workers share a workspace, it must be able to meet each individual’s needs.
Plan for Amenities
Do smaller, more flexible offices and cubes mean the loss of individual privacy and comfort? Well, yes and no. Companies are working furiously to use freed-up space to deliver sweeter amenities.
Pettinati, for instance, says that more clients are asking for “prayer rooms”—sometimes called meditation spaces—mainly because “they were finding employees praying in stairwells.” In today’s diverse workforce, with a multitude of faiths, savvy companies are responding.
The upshot is that small spaces have begun to emerge as private niches for employees to pray, meditate or just take a few minutes of downtime. Furnishings tend to be simple—a few chairs, some cushions on the floor—but even sparsely equipped rooms are proving popular.
Other new amenities, says Tom McWalters, managing principal at Gary Lee Partners in Chicago, are shower rooms, game rooms (with a pool table and maybe gaming consoles) and even rooms for yoga. As many workers put in longer days at the office, the company tries to reciprocate by providing more of what employees want.
Small amenities may make the difference in how any given employee feels about his or her workplace and organization, says McWalters, so companies are keen to provide special comforts that make staff feel appreciated.
Make it Green
Then there’s the environmental aspect. Suddenly, “green is the new black,” quips Yalmaz Siddiqui, director of environmental strategy for Office Depot. More businesses want sustainable, environmentally sensitive offices, and so do their employees, he says, adding that office furniture and supply stores are now awash in green goods.
Furniture made from recycled content, low VOC (volatile organic compound) paints that emit fewer greenhouse gases, organic fabrics and Energy Star business equipment that uses less electricity have become commonplace. In most cases, they are price competitive with ordinary, non-green counterparts, says Siddiqui.
This trend won’t just blow away—green is here to stay, says Siddiqui, who emphasizes: “You can even save money when you go green.” The old price disparity no longer holds, as more manufacturers rush to produce green goods.
Finally, just when you think your redesign includes all the latest and greatest strategies, here’s the next item on your to-do list: Get ready to start all over again. A redesign “every 10 years is typical,” says Taitt. Designers admit that sometimes they come across an office that hasn’t been redesigned in 20 years or more, but the industry rule of thumb says that every 7 to 10 years (roughly as long as most leases) is about right.
