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‘Law’ is a rapidly growing second tier firm that has been established for more than two hundred years. It had 215 employees in four regional offices, with 151 located in the single building of their head office. ‘Law’ offers a broad range of legal services structured into four specialist legal departments plus firmwide support staff. The four legal departments are Corporate, Litigation, Real Estate and Private Clients and their respective sizes are shown in table 3.2. Each department is further subdivided into a total of eighteen specialist units. The analysis of ‘Law’ was conducted at the firmwide level and at the level of the department. The head office was selected as the focus of this study as all five departments were located in this office and it was therefore considered representative of the firm as a whole.

Table 3.2: Number of employees in each departments of ‘Law’ Departments Employees Corporate 18 Litigation 28 Real Estate 48 Private Clients 30 Firmwide Support 27

‘Law’ is situated in a detached building within landscaped gardens on the outskirts of a regional city of the UK. The firm is the sole occupant of a three-storey building. It does not occupy the whole of the floor space and the areas that are not used are empty and blocked off from use. The floor plans of the building are shown in figures 3.2 and 3.6. In figure 3.2 the ground floor is shown with labels indicating the use for each area. Areas with no labels are currently not used and are blocked from access. The basement shown to the right of figure 3.2 is used for document storage and is not included in this analysis.

Visitors to ‘Law’ enter through sliding glass doors at the front of the building into a large entrance hall. A reception desk is placed in the centre of the entrance hall facing the visitors as they enter. The reception desk is permanently staffed in office hours. Comfortable seating is dotted around the entrance hall for visitors to use whilst waiting for the people they come to see.

Figure 3.2: Spatial configuration of ‘Law’, ground floor5

Source: Supplied by ‘Law’ to researcher Three doors leave the entrance hall, each of which automatically closes when not in use. Each door has a slim glass panel just off-centre of the door providing the slightest of glimpses of what lies beyond. The first of these doors is situated behind the reception desk and leads into the dining/seating area, shown in figure 3.3. This area is known by staff as the Atrium.

5 _{Figure 3.2 and 3.6 are reproduced directly from a pdf file supplied by ‘Law’ to the researcher.}

The resolution of the file means that it is not possible to reproduce any more clearly in this document. The diagram is provided to give an overall impression of the layout of the ground floor and to illustrate the material from which space syntax calculations can be made.

Figure 3.3: The dining/seating area in ‘Law’, also known as the Atrium

Source: Photograph taken by researcher on site in ‘Law’ There is no direct line of sight from the entrance hall into the Atrium and visitors are typically not permitted into this area. The Atrium contains a variety of seating and small circular tables. The furniture is easy to move so can accommodate small or large groups. To one side is a kitchen and servery that serves hot and cold food over the lunch period. At other times of day this area can be used for meetings away from workstations without the need to book the facility.

The other two doors leaving the entrance hall, one to the right, the other to the left, lead to corridors containing a total of eleven client meeting rooms. The client meeting rooms vary in size, but each has very similar décor, shown in figure 3.4. Each room contains a conference room style table surrounded by chairs, its own hot drinks making facility and a fridge

containing cold drinks. Once in the room, occupants have little reason to leave until the meeting has finished.

Figure 3.4: A typical client meeting room in ‘Law’

Source: Photograph taken by researcher on site in ‘Law’ The client meeting rooms are clearly labelled with their number when viewed from the corridor, shown in figure 3.5. The doors leading into each room are either solid or have a small glass panel. Even in those that have a glass panel, it is not possible to see the occupants from the corridor if the door is closed. The doors to client meeting rooms are typically kept closed at all times resulting in a private space for lawyers to meet with clients.

Figure 3.5: The corridor leading to the client meeting rooms in ‘Law’

Source: Photograph taken by researcher on site in ‘Law’ With very few exceptions, the entrance hall and client meeting rooms are the only areas of the offices that client visitors to ‘Law’ experience. Staff typically enter through a separate entrance to the rear of the building, shown to the left of the ‘accounts office’ in figure 3.2. The workstations for all the lawyers are on the first floor of the building. Access to the first floor is gained via lift or stairs. There are two of each, one located near the rear entrance, the second located just off the main entrance hall.

The first floor contains all the workstations for the lawyers. These workstations are located in an open plan office that essentially splits into two sides of the building, shown in figure 3.6.

Figure 3.6: Spatial configuration of ‘Law’, first and second floors

Source: Supplied by ‘Law’ to researcher The workstations are organised into clusters of between four and eight desks. Each of the desks in a cluster is separated by a grey screen that varies in height, shown in figure 3.7. The dividing screen is at its highest around the computer screen and telephone, affording some privacy whilst working. The screen is at its lowest at either end of the desk making it easier to communicate with a colleague on an adjacent desk. In total there are twenty-five desk clusters in the open plan offices and the occupants of two of these had chosen to remove the dividing screens to further aid communication with their immediate colleagues whilst at their desks. One of these can just be seen in the background of figure 3.7, where two people are in conversation, one standing the other seated.

Figure 3.7: A typical desk cluster located in the open plan office in ‘Law’

Source: Photograph taken by researcher on site in ‘Law’ In addition to the open plan offices, the first floor also accommodates three other areas. A training room, the ‘glass room’, and a breakout area. The training room is located off the ‘gallery’ on figure 3.6. The training room contains classroom style seating for up to twelve people with audio visual equipment suitable for a wide range of training needs. The occupants of the room cannot be seen from the open plan office or the corridor that contains the door used to enter the room. The ‘glass room’ is a meeting room with floor to ceiling glass walls within the open plan office. Both the training room and the glass room are used via a booking system run by the staff on reception. The breakout area adjoins the open plan office, shown in figure 3.8. It contains a small kitchen with facilities for making hot drinks and four round tables each with three or four seats. The breakout area can be used at any time without the need for booking.

Figure 3.8: The breakout area in ‘Law’

Source: Photograph taken by researcher on site in ‘Law’ Having described the organisation studied in phase one of the research, the following section describes the methods used to gather data.