Despite recent trends in open office layouts, remote working arrangements, and cloud-based collaboration tools, today’s workers spend a great deal of time in meetings. By some estimates, middle managers and upper managers spend about 35% and 50% of their time in meetings, respectively.
Companies often hold meetings in conference rooms because they offer the attendees a certain modicum of privacy. They can also provide attendees with a distraction-free environment, which is ideal for important discussions.
Most modern conference rooms come with any number of multimedia tools, like projectors, computers, VoIP communications devices, and interactive whiteboards. However, conference room architecture is also an important consideration, and recent trends are having a lasting impact on the way conference rooms are designed for both function and style.
The businesses that inhabit office buildings are placing more emphasis on comfort, style, branding, and aesthetics. They want their office spaces, and their conference rooms, to support productivity and collaboration while also making a statement.
Once separated by walls, architects and building designers are using glass to house today’s meeting areas. Both internally and externally, glass is becoming more prevalent in office buildings around the globe. But why is there so much emphasis on glass?
There are a few reasons glass has become so popular. One reason is that natural light has been shown to improve mood and productivity, which has made “daylighting” a common word. Conference room glass is ideal for daylighting. It allows natural light to be transferred more effectively throughout the room and the office.
For example, if a conference room is situated in the center of an office building, constructing its walls with glass dividers allows light from external windows to travel uninhibited through the conference room. Conference rooms on the side of a building don’t have to inhibit light if they combine large format windows and glass dividers.
Conference room glass also contributes to the openness of office spaces. Opaque walls compartmentalize an office space, which can make workers feel isolated and separated. Interior glass and natural light work in tandem to improve team cohesion and productivity.
What’s more, creating transparency between a conference room and the rest of the office may also help attendees in a meeting stay on topic. That means glass can actually make meetings more productive. Transparency has an innate effect on our psychology: Being observed, and even the illusion of being observed can make us focus more on doing what’s best for a collective rather than focusing on our own interests.
Regardless, conference room glass doesn’t need to be completely bare. Using window films, architects and their clients can turn meeting areas into branded, aesthetically pleasing glass environments.
Externally, color can add branding elements to windows to add a sense of belonging to a particular building. Internally, architects and building designers can add window films to glass dividers to increase privacy without closing off a conference room completely.
Dusted, colored, and textured window graphics help you define your spaces based on the needs of every client. Clients can choose designs that specifically reflect the mood of the office or the brand that they represent. When used in conference rooms, window graphics provide a sense of time and place for people in the meeting
And while open offices are popular, some meetings are meant to be private. Frosted window films add an increased level of privacy without sacrificing natural light or office openness. When selecting frosted privacy films, your client can choose to cover conference room glass entirely or only cover certain sections.
With window film, conference rooms are optimized and transformed by color, creating more pleasant and productive meetings.