# Office Space Planner: How Much Area Does Your Team Need?

> An office space planner turns a headcount and a list of rooms into the carpet area a team needs, then adds the building's loading to give the chargeable area to lease. It is a briefing tool for shortlisting buildings, not a layout.

## What it calculates

The planner answers the first question in any office move: how big a floor should we be
looking at? It takes the people and rooms you need and returns four figures:

- the **number of workstations**, after cabins and any hybrid sharing;
- the **carpet area** the team needs, including circulation;
- the **chargeable area** you are likely to lease once the building's loading is added;
- the **carpet area for each person**, a quick check against typical office density.

It also shows where the area goes, so you can see whether meeting rooms, cabins or desks
are driving the total.

## Inputs

**Total headcount** is everyone who needs a place in the office, including people in cabins.

**People in private cabins** are taken out of the open-plan count and given a cabin each.

**Open-plan staff in office on a peak day** sets how many desks are provided. Keep it at
100% for one desk each. Lower it if the team works hybrid and not everyone is in on the
same day.

**Small meeting rooms** and **boardrooms** are counted separately because they differ a lot
in size.

The **assumptions** panel holds the area given to each type of space, the circulation
allowance and the building loading. Every one of them can be changed.

## Method

The planner builds the area up from the spaces, then adds circulation, then adds loading:

1. Workstations = open-plan staff × peak attendance, rounded up.
2. Net area = workstations + cabins + meeting rooms + reception, pantry, IT and storage.
3. Carpet area = net area × (1 + circulation allowance).
4. Chargeable area = carpet area × (1 + loading).

The pantry allowance is applied to the whole headcount, since everyone uses it. The
reception, IT and storage figures are fixed areas you can edit.

## Assumptions

| Space | Default | What it covers |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Workstation | 45 sq ft | Desk, chair and the space to pull the chair out |
| Cabin | 120 sq ft | A single-person cabin with a small meeting table |
| Small meeting room | 120 sq ft | Four to six seats |
| Boardroom | 300 sq ft | Ten to twelve seats |
| Reception and waiting | 150 sq ft | Desk and a few visitor seats |
| Pantry and breakout | 6 sq ft for each person | Counter, seating and storage |
| Server / IT room | 80 sq ft | A rack or two and the UPS |
| Storage, print and records | 100 sq ft | Shared storage and the print area |
| Circulation | 25% | Corridors and walkways between spaces |
| Loading | 30% | Common areas charged on top of carpet |

These are planning allowances, not standards. A sales team on compact desks needs less; a
leadership floor with large cabins needs far more. Change them to suit how your team works.

Loading varies from building to building and is a lease term, so the 30% default is only a
placeholder until the landlord gives you the real figure.

## Limitations

- **It does not draw a layout.** Columns, the core, the shape of the floor and the window
  line all affect how much of the carpet area is usable. A deep or irregular floor can need
  noticeably more area for the same team.
- **It assumes washrooms are in the core.** If your tenancy has its own washrooms, add them.
- **It does not check fire escape.** More people on a floor means a higher occupant load,
  which affects exit widths and travel distances under NBC 2016 Part 4. That is a check for
  the fire consultant on the actual building.
- **It does not allow for growth.** If the team will grow during the lease, enter the
  headcount you expect at the end of it, or the peak in between.

## Worked example

A team of 50, with 4 people in cabins, everyone in the office on the busiest day, two small
meeting rooms and one boardroom, using the default assumptions:

| Step | Calculation | Result |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Open-plan staff | 50 − 4 | 46 |
| Workstations | 46 × 100%, rounded up | 46 |
| Workstation area | 46 × 45 | 2,070 sq ft |
| Cabins | 4 × 120 | 480 sq ft |
| Meeting rooms | 2 × 120 + 1 × 300 | 540 sq ft |
| Reception, pantry, IT, storage | 150 + 50 × 6 + 80 + 100 | 630 sq ft |
| Net area | 2,070 + 480 + 540 + 630 | 3,720 sq ft |
| Carpet area | 3,720 × 1.25 | 4,650 sq ft |
| Chargeable area | 4,650 × 1.30 | 6,045 sq ft |

That is about 93 sq ft of carpet area for each person. In practice this team would be
looking at floors of roughly 6,000 sq ft chargeable, and would ask each landlord for the
carpet area before shortlisting.

If the same team moves to hybrid working with 70% of open-plan staff in on the busiest day,
the workstations drop to 33 and the carpet area falls to 3,919 sq ft, about 16% less.

## How engineers use it

A designer uses a calculation like this at the briefing stage, before any building has been
chosen. It turns a conversation about headcount into an area brief, and it makes the
trade-offs visible: dropping one cabin or one boardroom has a direct, measurable effect on
the floor size and therefore on rent.

Once a building is shortlisted, the brief becomes a **test fit**: a quick layout on the real
floor plate. The test fit confirms whether the room list fits, where the cabins can sit
against the window line, and whether the core position wastes area. It also feeds the next
calculations: cooling load is sized on the carpet area, and lighting is designed room by
room.

## When a professional design must replace it

Use the planner to decide how big a floor to look for and to compare buildings. Replace it
with a designer's test fit before you sign a lease, and with a full layout before you order
furniture or start any work. The test fit is also where fire escape, accessible routes and
the building's own fit-out rules are checked against the real floor.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much office space does one employee need in India?

There is no single figure, because the answer depends on how many cabins, meeting rooms and support spaces the team needs. Corporate offices commonly land somewhere between 60 and 100 sq ft of carpet area for each person once everything is included. Use the planner with your own room list rather than a rule of thumb.

### Should I plan on carpet area or chargeable area?

Plan on carpet area, because that is the floor you can actually put desks on. Then convert to chargeable (super built-up) area using the building's loading to see what you will be leasing and paying rent on. Mixing the two is the most common reason a floor turns out smaller than expected.

### How do I plan for hybrid working?

Lower the share of open-plan staff in the office on a peak day. If 70% of the open-plan team is present on the busiest day, set it to 70% and the planner provides desks for that number. Size for the peak, not the average, or the busiest days will have people without a desk.

### Are washrooms included in the result?

No. In most Indian commercial buildings washrooms sit in the building core and are part of the common area that loading pays for. If your floor needs its own washrooms inside the tenancy, add their area under storage or ask a designer to include them.

### Can this replace a test fit from a designer?

No. The planner tells you roughly how big a floor to look for. A test fit on the actual floor plate shows whether the columns, core position, window line and shape let that area work, and it often changes the answer by a meaningful margin.

## Sources

- [NBC 2016, Part 4](https://www.bis.gov.in/standards/national-building-code/?lang=en) — Fire and life safety: occupant load and means of egress
- [RERA 2016](https://legislative.gov.in/) — Section 2(k): definition of carpet area

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Source: https://hagerstone.com/calculators/office-space-planner