The Uses Of Floor Plans In Business

Floor plans are immensely important architectural documents. They are traditionally two-dimensional, although three-dimensional floor plans have gained popularity in recent years. The aim of a floor plan – otherwise known as a blueprint – is to display the dimensions and fittings of a building in the most accurate and easily understandable way possible. 

Floor plans are a form of orthographic projection. 

What is orthographic projection exactly?

Orthographic projection is a term used to describe the method by which a person can transform a three-dimensional space into a two-dimensional representation. 

The oldest floor plans that have been discovered originate in the 9th Century. The so-called ‘Plan of St Gall’ is a blueprint originating from that time, which depicts a monastery building that was never truly built. A group of academics is attempting to decipher this medieval relative of modern blueprints in order to create a ‘recreation’ of a monastery that was never built!

Although the most well-known use of floor plans is in the design and construction of buildings, these documents actually have a myriad of other uses in modern business. Here is a very brief guide to some of the uses that floor plans have found in businesses. 

Designing Buildings 

Floor plans are absolutely essential in the design and construction of buildings. All potential buildings going through the planning stage must be backed up by two sets of floor plans: one for the construction team and one for the permission granting local authority. Although architects generally train using traditional manual orthographic projection techniques, most have moved on to software for drawing floor plans due to its simplicity and efficiency. 

Many businesses choose to build new premises from scratch instead of refitting old buildings. In order to do this, they need to create a brief for an architect, who will then draft floor plans and other architectural documents. New buildings can be more energy efficient, more tailored to an area of business and more social than buildings that have been repurposed. Three-dimensional floor plans are becoming more popular with architects because they allow them to give client businesses a good idea of what their future property is going to feel like as an occupant or building manager. Some architects are even beginning to offer Virtual Reality tours to clients using data generated from floor plans. 

Strengthening Security 

Many businesses use special floor plans known as security and access diagrams to help keep their property safe. Security and access diagrams are used to identify weak points that may jeopardize security. Protective human operators and technologies are then arranged and added to the floor plan to create chokepoints and concentric circles of protection. Without a floor plan, the creation of airtight security would be much more difficult. 

Security is a huge issue for almost all businesses. One of the most efficient ways of planning airtight security is to use a floor plan to get a sense of the bigger picture and an understanding of how potential criminals might act when breaking into a facility. 

Improving Customer Experience

In the retail industry, customer experience can be drastically enhanced using interior design. All people react to the spaces that they find themselves in, no matter how much they consciously notice it. By using floor plans to assess chokepoints, access and produce shelving points, a business-focused interior designer can mold customer experience. Retail interior design is constantly undergoing paradigm shifts. The idea of a fixed customer spatial desire is obsolete: with businesses now focusing on creating spaces that appeal to their consumer target’s individual wants and needs. 

Developing A Productive Workplace 

A great deal has been written on the extreme impact of office layouts on the productivity and happiness of workers. Floor plans are essential in the creation of arrangements that provoke productivity, sociability and happiness. In recent years, office floor space planners have opted to move away from the overly hierarchical arrangements of the past in favor of designing more open-plan spaces. These open-plan spaces have benefits and drawbacks. The balancing of sociability and transparency with the need for a degree of privacy is crucial. 

Floor plans can be used to identify areas where workers may congregate, where they might hide away and where they may feel too exposed. It is not the aim of the office space designer to create a stifling panopticon. Instead, workers must be afforded a degree of autonomy. The psychology of interior design responses has probably been studied the most intensely in the field of office design. 

Making The Most Out Of A Space 

Space – as well as time – is money. Floor plans can be used to visualize the most efficient usage of an office, shop or any other business space. Unused areas can be identified and incorporated into the workable space. Every inch of a business’s property needs to be put to use in order to maximize profit and cut down on expenditure. 

Visualize Movements For Safety’s Sake

Floor plans are immensely important when developing a plan for safely containing people within a building. If, for instance, a company wanted to improve customer safety at the football stadium that they owned, they would need to draw up and carefully assess a floor plan as well as a large number of other documents. Using these documents, they could assess the proximity of fire exits to all areas of seating and transit, the accessibility of the site to people with disabilities and the dangerous crush zones that need to be eliminated. Sports stadium safety auditors regularly produce and analyze floor plans in an effort to constantly improve safety standards. Sporting organizations such as FIFA produce regularly updated guidelines for stadium safety. 

Large businesses also use floor plans to help develop contingency arrangements to be used in the event of a mass shooting or terrorist attack. These plans are usually drawn up with the help of floor blueprints – allowing site managers to develop plans for moving people to safe places and eventually evacuate them in the event of an incident taking place. 

Originally posted 2022-09-14 16:33:24.