If you’re an engineer, designer or anyone working in R&D on a design challenge, you know you need convenient access to your materials. A highly organized space with easily accessible tools and materials allow you to evaluate and compare potential solutions.
We recently designed and built a design studio for a major automobile manufacturer in southern California. This particular manufacturer wanted a dedicated space for a variety of items, including: fabrics, carpets, levers, handles, windshields and prototypes of doors and dashboards.
Southern California is known for its extremely low vacancy rate in industrial and manufacturing environments. Making the most of the existing space in this auto manufacturers studio was first priority. We designed a bright white, custom, high density mobile storage system with various drawers, shelves, dividers and cubbies to house all of the different shapes and sizes of the materials. High density mobile storage is comprised of several carriages that sit on rails, allowing the carriages to glide back and forth for easy access and maximum density of the stored materials.
Horizontal bars sit on the back shelf to store rolls of textiles, while hanging poles sit 3 tiers high to hang carpet samples. There are heavy duty drawers with dividers to hold samples and tools. Cubbies and shelves hold binders and odd shaped items while maintaining organization.
In addition to the mobile storage system, the research and development team needed multifunctional space to offer flexibility for the designers to meet, work and collaborate. We designed custom rolling cabinets with built in drawers and a vinyl cutting table over the top. This allows the R&D team to roll the cabinets aside when they need floor space and push them back together when a large working space is needed.
Ultimately, this automotive manufacturing R&D design studio will have clean, organized room to work and plenty of space to grow into.Click the photos below to see more of the R&D design studio. If you’re working on a new space for your research and development team Call us!What should you consider when designing an R&D space?