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tween 50 and 70 persons are placed in each landscape. The largest number of persons in any one office in the Volvo open plan complex is 78. The smallest number of work stations in any one office is 48. The available reserve space and possibility of expansion enables the office to house a total of 2,000-3,000 staff workers.

Open plan offices include only movable screens and plant groups in addition to furniture which means that a reorganisation of groups or working methods is easily carried out. This flexibility is difficult to achieve in the old type of 'cell office' where the various walls would increase moving costs considerably. The design of a 'cell office' makes it difficult to func- tionally dimension a place of work if the window arrangements must be taken into consideration. The building costs of an office on the open plan principle are however no lower. The cost of a work station in the new head office is approximately 30,000 Sw.Kr. the corresponding cost in a conven- tional office would be approximately 20,000-30,000 Sw.Kr.

Cost comparisons

From this detail it will be realised that a landscape office invariably in- volves higher standards than those normally found in cell structures, and expectedly the cost is usually higher. How much?

So far relatively little has been done to compare the economic merits of 'cell' offices with landscape design. Cost comparisons, however, have been made both in Germany and in Sweden where reconstruction projects have led to new methods and new operational structures being put into practice side by side with traditional methods.

These comparisons show the land- scape principle in a very favourable light. However they do depend on variable circumstances. If a direct com- parison is made between two buildings of a similar dimension, the traditional cell office is often cheaper. But the cell office cannot accommodate as many work units, and this factor must be taken into account. In view of this the comparisons between the two al- ternatives must be between the cost per work unit, as this, after all, is what company expansion linked to produc- tivity forecasts involves.

According to German statistics on the office landscape, quantity costs for building work out to between 10-30 per cent cheaper in favour of the land

scaped offices. Taking the cost per work unit for a cell office as 100 per cent the equivalent cost for a landscap- ed office work unit is equal to 75.5 per cent, the difference being 24.5 per cent in favour of the landscaped office. Because the very concept of landscaped offices is based on careful analytical study it is not surprising that the gain in productivity has been carefully studied. The table shows the results of the study, which once again was made in Germany.

Cell Landscape

office

office US$2,588,906 US$1,594,698 100 per cent 61 per cent

Percentage Building cost

Maintenance and

running costs Percentage

Staff costs Percentage

US$196,860 US$95,623 100 per cent 50 per cent US$142,649 US$117,450 100 per cent 84 per cent

However the fact remains that cost of a given number of work units shows a decrease of 16 per cent. Using this same method of calculation the overall savings can be as high as 40 per cent. These figures are taken from the continent but it is worthwhile to for mulate costings using the following conditions as examples for calculation.

Calculating the costs

Shell of the building compare the costs between on-site concrete frames and prefabricated frames. Generally speaking prefabrication is more economical.

Inner walls the cost of these are usually higher than for pillars and RSJs. Partitioning, the only resort of many offices faced with expansion or alteration to existing premises, is ex- pensive, and, because of its general lack of sound proofing, not particular- ly satisfactory so far as noise is con- cerned. Also lighting and heating prob- lems arise, the solution to which is invariably expensive.

Cost for installation. The basic dif- ferences here are the variation between methods of heating, ventilation and electricity supply. In landscaped of- fices, air conditioning costs must be borne in mind. Channelling or ducting for electric points should not be great- ly increased in cost other than the fact that it is obviously desirable to have more power and telephone outlets in a grid system for landscaped offices.

Furniture costs. Furniture of the right type is really vital to landscaping. The Volvo offices for example were furnished completely by Facit of Sweden, with modern, light and sys-

tem type fumiture designed specifical- ly for the landscape office. Generally speaking, wood has been favoured for these environments as this material has greater sound-deadening properties than steel. It is equally robust and, surprisingly, almost equally fire re- sistant.

Initial capital outlay is likely to be higher for other landscaped furnish- ings, as this includes the installation of carpets, screens, plants and other fea- tures desirable to enhance the decor and privacy.

These are likely to be higher in a landscaped office than the traditional 'cell' offices due to carpet depreciation - usually estimated as having a life of 10 years, compared with 20 years for an indentation resistant linoleum. With wall-to-wall carpeting the total clean- ing costs are considerably lower than with lino. The cleaning of lino requires the use of a large special polishing machine at least once a month. This is, of course, unnecessary with office car- pets. After the first year however, the annual decoration of walls and doors is considerably less in a landscaped office.

It is with the space required per work unit that dramatic differences are generally noted. Landscaped of- fices designed for optimum number of personnel lend themselves to expan- sion as the adaptability of layout in- herent in a planned landscape office caters adequately for contingencies such as this. The advantages of shell construction are obvious. Once the basic layout has been planned and the furniture moved in, there are no an- noyances of last-minute partitions, painting of walls or any of the myriad construction problems that seem to occur in the majority of office construction.

As any building will deteriorate to some extent with time, maintenance and the frequency with which it has to be undertaken and the costs are im- portant factors to be considered. The rate of deterioration, of course, is de- pendent upon climatic conditions, de- sign and the materials used.

However, maintenance should not be divorced from design and a consi- derable amount of maintenance could be eliminated by effort at the design stage and even during construction. With a landscaped office maintenance costs are indisputably lower from the point of view of equipment and per sonnel necessary to adequately main- tain similar premises.

Far East BUILDER, December 1970