Placing lounge furniture with red bases and no armrests
Start with the route beside the lounge rather than the center of the seating group. Identify where people pass, pause or turn into the area. Then decide how the seats should face in relation to that movement. An open side may allow a view into the group, but the layout still needs an understandable entrance. Review whether someone joining the conversation would cross the main route or move between seated participants. Include the complete furniture outlines in the plan. The absence of armrests removes a specific side element, while the rest of the design continues to determine the occupied area and its approaches.
Use orientation to distinguish gathering from circulation
Compare a group turned inward with seating that faces outward toward the surrounding room. Each creates a different relationship between participants and passersby. Choose according to the intended use of the area, then assess the ends and sides of the arrangement. Without armrests, the separation between seats and the direction they face play a larger part in communicating where the group begins. Avoid leaving the intended entry to chance. Review an occupied version of the plan and trace how a person enters an available place, leaves the conversation and returns to the main workplace route without crossing another seating position.
