David Cummings on Startups

Outfitting a Great Creative Tech Office

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David Cummings

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One area I enjoy obsessing over is the physical office environment and office space. The people component of any business is much more important than the actual office that people work out of but the physical environment is often a manifestation of the company’s culture. So, if you had unlimited budget to outfit the ultimate office, what would you include?

Here are some ideas for outfitting a great creative tech office:

  • iPads outside each conference room
  • 80″ LED TVs inside each conference room
  • High quality chairs (e.g. Herman Miller Aeron chairs)
  • Mixture of open workspaces with many ad hoc meeting rooms and phone booth rooms for calls
  • Tons of glass and natural light
  • Great lighting
  • Exposed duct work with high ceilings throughout
  • Rooftop patio
  • Coffee shop with indoor and outdoor seating
  • Pool table and ping pong table
  • Sleeping pods
  • Fireman’s pole or slide to go between floors
  • Zen garden
  • Climbing wall
  • Massage room

Most of these are practical items with a few out there. A great office, like a great company, has its own identity and sets the tone for everyone.

What else? What other things would you do to outfit a great creative tech office?

Comments

2 responses to “Outfitting a Great Creative Tech Office”

  1. Eric Langley Avatar
    Eric Langley

    +1 for sleeping pods. Having started to use polyphasic (bi/tri-phasic) sleep patterns sleeping for twenty minutes in the afternoon is important. Some of the best ideas or recollections come up when laying down and being quiet. Of course I have to get up and write them down but at least I have them. Then I go lay back down and get some sleep.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep.

    Steve Pavlina wrote a series of post about going completely polyphasic, called dymaxion sleep. It did not work for him. You can read about it here: hhttp://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/04/polyphasic-sleep-the-return-to-monophasic/

    A good middle ground probably involves one or two naps during the day, especially when feel fatigued.

    ~eric

    Reply
  2. Greg Benoit Avatar
    Greg Benoit

    Steelcase Series 5 Height-Adjustable desks (roughly $1500) are a great complement to the Herman Miller Aeron chairs. Everyone on our team seems to really enjoy this setup.

    http://www.steelcase.com/en/products/category/tables/adjustable/series5/pages/overview.aspx

    -Greg

    Reply

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