Work bench ranges
Are bench desks right for your office?
Bench desks, bench systems and work benches are larger office workstations designed to be shared by multiple users. The desks share components such as legs, frames, cable baskets and dividing screens. This style of setup uses fewer parts per user, thus saving costs. The central legs or intermediate legs are usually recessed to add more space for the user's feet. The recessed leg location can also be used as a workable space, allowing the surface area to be utilised for more users. This style of bench setup can work effectively where office space is at a premium and the users do not require as much space. Bench desks are ideally situated in large open plan offices where communication is vital.
Architects and designers with the need large desk surfaces for laying out large floor plans or models often use bench desking. The desk surface size not only offers the architect plenty of space, it can be divided on demand by clever use of clip on desk screens, which can then divide the bench desk surface in to zoned areas.
However
Bench desks are not suitable for every workspace and consideration should be given to the office area and its users. As an example; bench desking is heavily used in call centres due to the smaller footprint that the benches offer and the increased amount of staff that can be seated at them. This can work well, but a further understanding of acoustics and layout should be investigated due to the close proximity of users. Telephone headsets and acoustic desk divides should be used in this scenario.
Bench desktops are joined together and cannot be split in to individual workstations. The desks can be extended by simply purchasing an extension desk with intermediate leg, but should the workspace or location change where the need for individual desks is required, then single workstations would be need to be purchased. Consideration of your future needs should be evaluated before the purchase of benched desks.
