Design and Build Ltd's Dennis Kerage during an interview with the Business Daily at Prestige Plaza in Nairobi on August 20, 2014. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU
What you need to know:
Before you part with your money, get a professional to help you come up with exactly how you want your space to look.
When Albert Kamunde needed to turn his office at Blue Violet Plaza on KIndaruma Lane off Ngong road into a functional space, he turned to Denis Kerage for assistance.
Kerage, a marketer-turned-Interior-designer helped with the transformation. He used his skills to create work stations for staff, the reception and other common areas.
It might sound simple, but this is a task many companies find hard to overcome. Proper planning of space is an office is necessary and contributes to employee comfort and productivity. This is the challenge that Kerage helped Albert Kamunde & Company Advocates solve.
“People spend most of their time in the office. This is why one should pay more focus on how the office looks and feels. It has to revitalise and should be comfortable to work in,” says the co-founder of Build and Design, an interior design company in Nairobi.
Established in 2012, Build and Design has taken three years to establish a worthy list of clientele, especially those seeking to redesign office spaces.
They are happy more clients are taking an interest in making work stations places where the employee can have privacy and comfort even as they sit with others in close proxity.
Law firms, coffee houses and small office spaces are some of the commercial spaces the company has worked on.
Kerage’s clientele cuts across social classes with small businesses also tapping into his creative skills. However, according to him, those are not just small businesses, but clients with taste and high regard for working space.
Work stations
Build and Design works with both open space offices and already partitioned work stations. Their role is to bring a touch of life into the office.
“Interior design isn’t just about the colour of the walls. It involves many other things like lighting, ceiling, furniture, floor and much more,” he says.
The budget of the work to be done depends on the client’s need and the interior designer’s assessment of the space to be worked on.
“First, I meet the client on site and get a brief of the intended work. If the suggestions are possible, I do a preliminary design and measurements for required spaces like common areas. We then make a tentative budget and submit to the client for approval. A down payment is made before work is stages or in stages,” explains Kerage.
Convenience
Interior designers often help the client choose materials according to the budget. They also require that the client supervises work at least twice a week.
“It’s good that the client sees and approves work being done to avoid making changes that were not provided for, running into losses and other inconveniences,” he says.
Kerage says he prefers working with open spaces due to the convenience in planning.
“What do you do when you have rented a partitioned office space with five rooms yet you have six departments? You might have one person in the HR office with big space yet they don’t need a large room. But again, the person might have in their custody private files. So what do you do in such a case? Open space allows one to plan for such eventualities. It’s also possible to create more rooms as demand rises,” he advises.
He also advises those looking to buy offices space to consider the amount space they are buying, the design and interior finishes.
“How the space is built should be worth the cost. If you are buying space for Sh25million, know what you are spending money on. For example, are you buying a home, for instance, that has the master bedroom next to the servant’s quarter?
Or is the kitchen next to the bedroom?” he adds advising buyers to consult widely on design and value of the unit before making a purchase.
Partitioning
He also advises buyers, of office space especially, to go for space and opt to do the interiors and partitioning on their own. This way, he says, it’s cheaper compared to buying space and then redoing the interiors.
“I would advise that you take space that is open. This will help you plan for use because there are no boundaries,” he says.
Old offices can also be remodel rejuvenate employees who have worked with you in the same environment for years.
“It invigorates the office and makes employees feel like they are in a new setting,” he says. If one is afraid of incurring expenses, Kerage advises that they repaint the office décor at least every three years.
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