Office

:This article is about traditional meanings of the word office. For the computer office applications suite, see Microsoft Office.

Office buildings

While offices can be built in almost any location in almost any building, some modern requirements for offices make this more difficult. These requirements can be both legal (light levels must be sufficient, for example) or technical (requirements for networking). Along side such other requirements such as security and flexibility of layout, this has led to the creation of special buildings which are dedicated only or primarily for use as offices. An office building (also called an office block) is a form of commercial building which contains spaces mainly designed to used for offices.

Related Topics:
Commercial building - Office

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The primary purpose of an office building is to provide a workplace and working environment primarily for administrative and managerial workers. These workers usually occupy set areas within the office building, and usually are provided with desks, PC's and other equipment they may need within these areas.

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An office building will be divided into sections for different companies or may be dedicated to one company. In either case, each company will typically have a reception area, one or several meeting rooms, singular or open-plan offices, as well as toilets.

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Many office buildings also have kitchen facilities and a staff room, where workers can have lunch or take a short break.

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Standard facilities in modern office buildings

• water
• electricity (distribution through entire office space with many separate points)
• private branch exchange
• optical connections to local telecommunications providers
• parking (often underground under the office)
• structured cabling (category 5 or better) for internal networking and telecommunications