Architect and Builder Magazine South Africa September/October 2014 | Page 26

Variety in the types
of workspaces and
furniture used, as well
as materials chosen
(coloured carpeting
& wall panelling, light
oak timber, marble
and white and charcoal
detailing) create interest

INTERIOR DESIGN AND SPACE PLANNING
Stay or Go
The first brief or project objective from EY to
Interior Design consultants, Savile Row, was
“do we stay at our old Wanderers Offices
or go”? In order to answer this question
a workplace audit was performed, which
entailed time & motion studies, online staff
questionnaires and individual interviews. This,
combined with a process of workshops with
EY, allowed the development of a strategy
and criteria for what their workplace of the
future should provide for and look like. This
informed the business decision to move to
102 Rivonia Road.
User-centred Productive Workplace
A Workplace Audit gave insight as to how
EY staff were working and highlighted the

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shortcomings of their old office space. This
insight led to the development of solutions
and creation of new work settings that would
better support the staff’s actual work needs.
As much of the staff are a mobile workforce
it made sense to employ an Activity Based
space planning philosophy.
An Activity Based Workplace (ABW) is about
much more than desk sharing or hot desking
or hotelling; it is about providing a greater
choice of how people can work. It does not
take away things (like people’s desks!). In fact
an ABW provides more (more facilities, more
variety, more amenities) to enable people to
more effectively undertake their work where a
variety of spaces are provided that give staff a
choice of where and how to work depending
on the work task. The ratio and type of space
was informed by research on EY’s work habits
combined with future needs. It can be noted
that in most areas, from the Work Café to
Pause areas, staff have access to power and
WiFi so that they can focus in solitude or
brainstorm with colleagues.
It was also important to create an
environment with high visual interest, hereby
avoiding the usual overscaled and inhumane
public arrival space, leading onto a vast sea of
open plan desks, laid out with mind numbing
repetition, that results in a visually bland
noise of boredom. The use of shots of colour
in the environment is there to break visual
monotony, as well as to illustrate choice and
to inspire EY employees. Variety in the types
of workspaces and furniture used, as well as
materials chosen (coloured carpeting & wall
panelling, light oak timber, marble and white
and charcoal detailing) also create interest.
Maintaining attention to detail thorughout
the design process, from space planning
to joinery detailing, to custom designed
furniture and even custom signage, has
102 Rivonia Road