WELLNESS SHAPING THE MODERN OFFICE

The ‘wellness’ trend has helped shape current office designs which need to cater for a young workforce dominated by millennials. This generation places more emphasis on fitness, whether that’s cycling into work, taking a fitness class at lunchtime or hitting the gym after work. Trevor Bowers, director at Washroom Washroom addresses how important staff shower facilities have become to the office sector as a result.

With new offices springing up all the time landlords need to make their office space stand out from the crowd, while at the same time, companies are seeing that offering high quality facilities can help to attract and retain the very best staff. Staff shower and changing facilities, which would once have been a luxury feature of an office, are now increasingly seen as standard, and offices which fail to provide such facilities are sometimes viewed by office workers as old-fashioned or out-dated.

Such staff shower facilities are often not too dissimilar from those seen in a luxury leisure centre or club with high specification materials and finishes used throughout to create a luxurious space. Spacious full height shower and changing cubicles which include benching and hooks not only ensure end users have space to get changed in complete privacy but also add to the luxury feel. It’s not all about providing a high number of showers to accommodate lots of people but rather giving individual staff the space they need.

Special L-shaped lockers designed to accommodate a suit comfortably have also been developed with office workers firmly in mind. Washroom installed a new staff shower and changing area in the basement of the newly refurbished Heathrow Approach building in Slough and its bespoke L-shape locker system, which was finished in white to match the shower cubicle doors and crisp white Zodiaq stone vanities, forms a central part of the design.

One of the stand-out trends in office design is for washrooms to reflect or complement common areas such as lift lobbies and reception foyers and the same can also be seen of shower and changing areas. Utilising the same or similar materials such as real wood veneers with matching woodgrains and back-painted glass in addition to similar colour schemes can create a firm sense of cohesion between the staff shower facilities and other areas of the building.

The number of people cycling as part or all of their commute in the UK has increased significantly over the last ten years. In fact the number of people living in London who cycled to work more than doubled between 2001 and 2011 and this is constantly increasing. Such is the demand, that some offices have created bespoke cycle centres to cater for staff cycling in to work.

The innovative modular cycle centre at 214 Grays Inn Road, was designed by architects, IMA and in addition to bicycle parking, it provides separate male and female showers and changing rooms. The digitally printed bicycle x-ray style artwork at the entrance to the centre was an original, specially commissioned, piece of art by renowned artist, Nick Veasey.

Washroom’s Forza lockers, which were manufactured from 12mm solid laminate with aluminum bodies for exceptional strength, were installed and come complete with digital code access locks.

The cycle centre also features bespoke Corian trough vanities and Washroom's Marcato toilet and shower cubicles, fitted with high-quality stainless steel locks and coat hooks. Its flush fronted design and rebated finish ensures division panels and doors meet edge to edge for maximum privacy while the waterproof properties of solid grade laminate make it an ideal choice for toilet, shower or changing cubicles.

There’s been a huge increase in demand for staff shower and changing areas in recent years and this is something which has fast become a core part of Washroom’s commercial offering.

For more information on the range of products and services offered by Washroom Washroom, please visit www.washroom.co.uk, call 0800 999 8888or email sales@washroom.co.uk.