DDInteriors
June 11, 2023
A good conference room design is to the office what the heart is to the body.
Don’t you agree that business talks are incomplete with a conference room? They are the ideological battleground for strategizing, experimenting, and discussing ideas with the team and clients.
A good conference room design encourages conversation and creates a work environment conducive to growth. Especially with the growth of open office layouts, conference rooms have become even more important in the context of confidentiality.
The interior design of your conference room will impact the work productivity of the employees. It is also a statement-making element of the office that can impress your clients and build your credibility. Therefore, it is wise to select a conference room design that is tailor-made for your office.
If you are seeking design ideas to create an impressionable conference room, then below is a guide you can use.
The layout of your conference room depends on the desired number of people you wish to accommodate in the room. A standard conference room must accommodate a minimum of 6 people. A rectangular conference room layout is the most preferred choice for offices, but you can take your call based on your design requirements. However, ergonomic standards for office furniture must be fundamentally considered while designing the conference room.
If you need a small team huddle space, a square room layout with a circular table would be best suited for you. This layout helps to keep the discussion intimate and friendly. In case you want to host client meetings and prefer having discussions in large groups, then a rectangular conference room design would be perfect for you. The rectangular layout tends to a formal discussion and implies the power of decision-making.
A conference room is an enclosed space that should offer the flexibility to be naturally lit, as and when necessary. Nowadays, full-length windows are popular for office interior designs which allow a good amount of natural light into the space. For weekly team review meetings which do not involve video aids, you can brighten up the room with natural light.
While hosting audio-visual presentations, the conference room needs a complete blackout for effective project delivery. Hence, provision for window blinds or curtains has to be made for video conferencing and presentations. Since the conference room is occupied by a large number of people, effective air circulation must be ensured through mechanical ventilation.
A conference room is usually centrally located in the office to allow easy access for everyone. Depending upon your work culture, you can select office partitions that imply transparency or seclusion. If you want to make the room feel welcoming for all, you can select glass partitions. You can use frosted glass panels, or film the glass for adding a hint of privacy while maintaining a visual connection with the entire office. Glass partitions also work well for small offices where solid partitions can make the space feel claustrophobic.
Laminate or veneer finish plywood and aluminum partitions are recommended for offices where visual barriers are to be created to completely separate the conference room from the rest of the office. Sliding partitions or folding partitions are also gaining popularity in conference room designs. By allowing the room to be not sure what you mean by scalable they provide flexibility of space. With sliding partitions, conference rooms can be converted into seminar halls for large office gatherings.
Conference rooms are meant for closely-knit discussions that should be kept exclusive. Hence, it is necessary to treat the room for acoustics. Acoustic treatments involve the aspects of sound masking and sound absorption. Sound masking solutions prevent external noise from entering the conference room and sound absorption solutions contain the sound within the meeting room.
Plasterboard or gypsum board soundproof drywalls are a great way of limiting outdoor noises in the conference room. Installation of soundproof curtains made in Mass Loaded Vinyl (MLV) helps in sound blocking. For sound absorption, acoustic tiles are a popular solution. Acoustic hanging baffles and acoustic foams attached to the ceiling or wall are excellent sound-absorbing solutions for the conference room.
The selection of furniture can also impact the sound absorption capacity of the conference room. Upholstered furniture in fabrics such as chenille, corduroy, suede, and microfiber extensively helps in restricting the sound within the room. Installing rugs and carpets on the floor of the conference room also assists in sound absorption.
The use of color psychology is a prominent feature in conference room designs. Colors help to enhance work productivity, concentration, and communication. For conference rooms, the colors blue and green are used to create a calming and cheerful effect. The red color is a bold statement-making color used to make the room highly energized.
Heavily textured surfaces such as fluted or rustic finish panels help in sound absorption. You can give these panels an aesthetic look by blending their surface finishes with the design concept of the entire office.
The projection screen is ideally placed along the shorter length of the conference room. This ensures that every attendee in the conference room is able to view the presentation effortlessly. If you do not wish to invest in a projection screen, you can directly cast the video on a plain white-colored wall finish. Digital screen paints are also available in the market that can enhance the visual experience by giving the wall an authentic screen-like appearance.
In the best-case scenario, people in the conference room should be seated within 45 degrees on either side from the center of the screen for complete screen viewing. The top of the screen should be placed within 30 degrees above the seated eye level of the participants.
Conference room designs are dynamic spaces that have to be accommodative. Along with seating people across a table, conference rooms should also have sufficient storage. Space-saving multi-purpose furniture is an excellent idea for conference rooms with a limited carpet area. They also help in maintaining a good amount of circulation space around the chairs.
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, conference room designs have become more resilient by the application of social distancing norms. Touchless technology is being adopted through the installation of sensor-operated doors and voice-controlled projectors. The air filtration systems in conference rooms will also be enhanced to ensure a frequent inflow of fresh air.
With innovations happening every day, conference rooms have become a highly experimental design space. If you wish to learn more ideas about conference room interior design, feel free to reach out to us here. You can also view our website to check out our relevant works.
Incorporated in 2005, we specialize in Commercial Interiors & Exhibition Design. Our consistency in output has been rewarded with repeat business from our Clients, which is the best testimony to our Quality & Service.
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