KPMG’s Pretoria office has moved to its brand-new premises that allow planning for the future. The building was designed with a future workplace-design strategy in mind, it allows for expansion, and will allow for consolidation into one building.
Moving away from the stuffy old-school office, the new design favours open plan and an activity-based working design. So instead of allocated seating for each staff member and fixed desktop computers, employees using mobile devices are seated based on the activity or project they are working on at the time. The workplace planning provides desks for office work, large work tables for projects or teams, a selection of work rooms that allow concentrated work for individuals and teams; and technology-enabled rooms for collaboration with colleagues based in other offices around the country or the world. Meeting pods where up to four people can get together are spread across the office floors, and fast wireless infrastructure enables the pods to be used as additional workspaces as required.
The main building floor has a “Central Park” which provides a relaxed space that benefits from natural light streaming in through skylights, and is divided into zones that contain a picnic table, park bench and various activity areas. There’s also a coffee shop on the ground floor and a canteen on the top floor with a deck that provides wonderful views to the southeast.
The rich history and evolution of the firm has been celebrated with displays of historical documents and long-forgotten work tools of the profession, such as leather-bound ledger books and the smart device of the day – the typewriter. This display lives in the client area alongside the technology-enabled meeting rooms that represent the access and connectivity that is crucial to modern-day business operations.
Stuart Cloete – IA Plan Interior Architecture
