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How Much Office Space?

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A correct assessment of your office space requirements is the vital first step in your search for office accommodation. Although different buildings will be able to accommodate different numbers of people, because of factors such as the shape of the office floors, locations of the core areas (stairs, lifts and toilets) columns, windows etc, having an idea of the amount of space you require will help you budget more efficiently and avoid wasting time reviewing options that are not suitable.

Many clients may initially feel they have a good understanding of the space they need, although this is usually based on the space they currently occupy. Advances in furniture systems and different working practices may mean that the space you need is very different from what you have now. Also, by looking at your predicted space requirements before any detailed design work is undertaken gives you the opportunity to group teams together properly and develop a space standard by considering options such as greater open pan working or different approaches to meeting spaces.

A proper workspace audit requires time and commitment from your senior Directors and Heads of Departments, as they will need to provide information and their views in to the process, but it is possible to carry out an early assessment using the following benchmarks.

Open Plan Workstations

Open plan workstations are likely to be where the majority of your workstations are going to be located and it will form the most efficient use of office space. The amount of space you require for a workstation in an open plan environment will depend on the size of the desks and how they fit together. Here are a couple of examples:

First a bench style arrangement of 8 workstations. You can see how efficient this layout is, as there is no wasted space between desks. These desks share a common frame, and can be suplemented with low height partitions down the middle of the desks and if required to the sides of the desks as well.

Workstations of this sort are produced in differing widths, but 1600 (cm) or 1800 (cm) are the most popular sizes for general office, with smaller sizes often used in call centre type environments.This layout takes up about 23 sq.m for the 8 workstations shown (under 3 sq.m per workstation) and if you add another bank of 8 desks in a new row back to back with the first, the efficiencies can increase even further.

If your budget extends to new furniture, you will want to consider a benching option and benefit from the associated space efficiencies. If you think your budget does not extend to new furniture, you will need to consider if the cost of relocating and then housing your current furniture in terms of office rental costs is greater than the cost of new furniture.

Furniture with a less efficient floorplate can however still be used to create open plan office environments with a high density of occupation. This is an example of a small open plan area with 11 workstations, some of them configured in clusters and with a managers desk and includes associated storage but takes up about 55 sq.m, so 5.5 sq.m per workstation.

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