Our 5 favourite office spaces
Long gone are the days of offices being grey, drab and functional. Thanks partly to the influx of demanding Generation Y workers, employers are becoming more mindful about their offices spaces. Practical is no longer enough. The “office” now needs to be set up to facilitate collaboration, creativity and fun.
When selling or leasing commercial property, bear this in mind. Your buyer or tenant might have some big ideas in store.
Here are our favourite 5 weird and wonderful ways employers are bringing office spaces to life. Feel free to share these with your customers on your blogs and social media channels to give them some inspiration!
Life’s a beach
With a games room, free food and an open-air cinema, the office of Rentalcars.com in Manchester has been compared to a holiday camp. Our favourite feature is a rooftop beach with its own multi-coloured beach huts, although we hope there’s a lot of shelter from the notorious Manchester rain!
Source: Manchester Evening News.
A Welsh wonder of engineering
The UK’s leading telephone answering specialist mainly employs people in their late teens and twenties and has designed their new office in Wrexham to suit. We’re not sure which unique feature we like more – the indoor tree-house (!) meeting room, or having their very own village pub.
Source: Walesonline.co.uk.
It’s always sunny in…Scotland
Scotland isn’t known for having the best weather. That hasn’t deterred Virgin, though, who have installed their very own permanent sky at their Edinburgh office. Next time you’re trying to sell an office with a lack of natural light, have this idea up you’re sleeve! (We’re joking).
And if that’s not enough, they also have a giant pipe carrying sweets running from one floor to another. The perfect pick-me-up when the afternoon energy lull kicks in.
Source: Management Today.
The indoor picnic area
Innocent’s “Fruit Towers” offices in Kensal Rise, North West London are everything you’d expect from the quirky smoothie maker. As well as the obligatory unlimited supply of smoothies, staff have access to a “chill out zone” with synthetic grass, ping pong and park benches, and a library, which staff use to share books.
Source: Evening Standard.
Lego
This one’s cheating slightly as it’s not in the UK. It’s a great example of an office aligning perfectly with a company’s brand, though. Lego employees in Denmark have the option to live the childhood dream and actually work in a giant piece of Lego. We’re sure the novelty would wear off pretty quickly, but we love it!
Source: Esquire.
What’s your favourite office space? Are there any better ones we’ve missed? Let us know at @RightmovePro!
