The office block is the part of the plant people judge
Almost every industrial project includes a small building that is not industrial: offices, a canteen, change rooms, a laboratory, a first aid room, a gatehouse.
It is usually the smallest building on the site and the one with the most requirements per square metre.
It is a different building type sharing a site
An office needs floors that feel solid, windows that open, ceilings at a domestic height, and services that are concealed. A production shed needs none of those.
A steel frame can do both, but the office needs a slab that does not feel like a mezzanine, a floor-to-floor height that accommodates services above a ceiling, and a facade that is not industrial cladding.
Change rooms are the most regulated part
Where a plant handles food, chemicals or biological material, the change block is where the hygiene or safety regime becomes physical: clean and dirty sides, showers, lockers, boot wash, and a one-way flow.
That flow is a plan requirement and it often dictates the shape of the building. Getting it right costs nothing at design stage and is nearly impossible to retrofit.
The canteen carries a fire load and a grease load
A canteen kitchen has cooking equipment, extraction, a grease trap and a fire risk. In a plant where the canteen is attached to the office, that risk sits against the part of the building with the most occupants.
Separation, a dedicated extraction route and a suppression system in the kitchen are the standard answers, and they need space that should be allowed for in the plan.
Occupancy changes the structural and life-safety case
An office with fifty people has different exit, alarm and compartment requirements from a shed with five. When an office sits inside or against a production building, the stricter requirements can apply to the boundary between them.
That is worth clarifying at the start, because it can determine whether the office is a separate structure or part of the main frame.
It is also the part that gets value-engineered
On a tight budget the office block is the first place savings are sought, because it does not produce anything. The result is a building that looks cheap in the place where visitors arrive.
Spending a modest amount on the entrance, the floor finish and the daylight is usually better value than spending it on a larger shed.
What I want before drawings
- The headcount and the room schedule.
- Whether change facilities are required, and the flow they need.
- Whether a canteen or kitchen is included.
- Whether the office is a separate structure or part of the main frame.
- The finish level expected by the client and by the plant's visitors.
- The wind speed for the site in km/h from the applicable local code, not a round number.
The ancillary block is small enough to be designed properly and visible enough to be worth it. It is usually the cheapest good impression a plant can buy.
Written by Johnny Joe, who advises owners and project managers in Africa and South America on steel buildings. If this decision is live on a project, send the layout and the constraint that worries you and I will tell you what it changes.
Related: a floor inside a shed · accommodation buildings on a site · a small technical building · movement in a long building
