Office, study, or commercial premise, what do you need?

If you're thinking about opening or relocating your business, one of the first things you should consider when looking for a new location is precisely what kind of space you need. Beyond the area, square footage, and price, it's important to select a place that perfectly suits the activity you want to carry out. In this way, we can avoid future fitting issues that may cause setbacks and unexpected financial outlays. To make it a little easier for you, we're going to explain some differences and nuances that will help you when you start searching.

Offices, desks, and premises are not the same

There is usually a great deal of confusion between the terms office, desk, and premises, which are often mixed up and used interchangeably, without considering that each of them designates a space with certain characteristics and specific uses.

When we talk about a local commercial space, we are referring to the physical location where a merchant has their items or set of goods (business establishment). This term is perhaps the least confusing, as most people associate this kind of establishment with street-level businesses (shops).

However, when it comes to finding a space to manage a company's activity, there is often more confusion between the terms used, and it is easy to find people who request a premises when in fact the activity they are going to carry out can be located in an office or vice versa.

The term office refers to both the workspaces located within mixed-use buildings (where homes and businesses coexist), as well as those situated within exclusively commercial buildings; regardless of their size.

However, within the business jargon, it is common for real estate agencies to establish small differentiations and nuances of their own between concepts, which help to internally classify these workspaces according to, for example, size. Thus, we can find that the term office is sometimes used to refer to smaller workspaces, designed for a smaller group of people; while the word office is reserved to designate those larger spaces that can accommodate a greater number of people.

Open-concept buildings: new work environments

In recent years, a new concept of the work environment has been positioning itself as a preferred option for many companies looking for much more dynamic workspaces that facilitate interaction. This is about the open concept buildings where work offices have ceased to be mere passive spaces to become an active support tool for the tasks developed by the company. And the trend, increasingly on the rise, is to bet on these types of environments that favor mobility and non-territoriality. Spaces where no one is assigned a fixed position.

This new concept allows for better use of space, reduces costs, enables greater flexibility, and creates the possibility of fostering an environment that facilitates collaboration and innovation.

Indispensable: expert advice

Without a doubt, when choosing a workspace, it is essential to receive the appropriate expert advice, both in relation to the characteristics and uses of the space you want to acquire, and with technical issues (type of permitted activity or requirements for its adaptation, etc.). Having all the information helps to resolve doubts about it and prevents us from acquiring a space that does not suit the activity we want to carry out or that forces us to face an overly expensive renovation.

If you are looking for workspace in Barcelona for your business, visit our premises, offices, and workspaces located in the most strategic areas of the city.