The upside of downsizing

The term downsizing is a relatively new jargon word in the English language. And it is one that always has a negative connotation. To most people it means something is going to be lost; a job, a product or service, or space.

When it comes to downsizing space in a workplace, nine times out of ten it will be a largely unpopular move.

It’s becoming clear that downsizing your property space requirements is a key consideration to cut costs in today’s challenging economic climate.

Many businesses are looking at how they can consolidate space, and examining the options for sub-leasing extra areas. It makes good sense.

I believe that downsizing workspace requirements can be looked on as an opportunity, rather than something negative.

For instance, with today’s technologies it is a lot easier to use less space in an office. More and more information can be stored digitally and wireless computers and intelligent cabling can give a far greater range of options for designing the layout of a workspace.

There is in fact the opportunity to have a far better designed space as the result of a downsizing exercise.

Flexibility is again the name of the game. Workspaces need to be increasingly flexible so people can move around, work from home or remote locations, and slot in and out of different work teams in different areas.

A compact workspace does not have to mean people are “packed in like sardines” or are tripping over each other.

Perhaps we can take a leaf out of the book of those who design work environments in places such as Japan and Europe.

As space is such an issue in these countries, they have developed a great deal of skill at utilising small areas of space, using up all sorts of nooks and crannies efficiently.

Perhaps we could start to think about the “Zen of Work Space” as an approach and consider designs and designers’ efforts to make workspaces compact, efficient and harmonious.