Meeting Room Design and Sizing: Getting the Mix Right

Meeting room provision is decided by the mix of sizes rather than the total count. Most organisations over-provide large rooms and under-provide small ones, because large rooms feel important at planning stage while the scarce daily resource is a two-to-four person room or a booth for a call.

By Dhruv Agarwal · · 2 min read

The mix matters more than the count

Room typeTypical demandTypical provision
Phone booth, 1 personConstantRarely enough
Small room, 2–4Highest of allUnder-provided
Medium room, 6–8ModerateUsually adequate
Large room, 10–16OccasionalOver-provided
Board roomInfrequentAlways provided

Booking data from most offices shows the same shape. Large rooms are booked for small meetings because nothing smaller is free, which makes the shortage worse than the numbers suggest.

If booking data exists, use it. If not, err toward more small rooms.

Under-providing small rooms damages the open plan

This is the argument worth making to whoever controls the budget.

Without enough booths and small rooms, calls and quick discussions happen at desks. That is the single largest source of open-plan noise complaints — so the cost of under-providing small enclosed spaces is not borne by the people who wanted a room, it is borne by everyone on the floor.

What makes a room actually usable

Four requirements decide whether a room works once people are in it:

RequirementWhat it involvesReference
Fresh air sized for the room's occupancySix people in a small room is a far higher density than the open planASHRAE 62.1
Acoustic separation that accounts for flankingPartition to slab, junctions sealed, services crossings treated, outlets offsetISO 717-1
Lighting suited to both faces and screensNot lit only for the tableIS 3646
AV decided before constructionScreen size sets viewing distance, then table position, then room dimensions—

Ventilating a small room at the open-plan rate produces the stuffiness that empties meetings after twenty minutes. A rating under ISO 717-1 describes a wall without the flanking paths. A room lit only for the table is unflattering on video calls and glares on the screen. And working AV the other way produces rooms where people cannot read the screen from the far end.

Practical planning points

  • Do not line the facade with meeting rooms. They take daylight from the entire floor behind them; glaze them if they must sit there.
  • Provide visibility into rooms, through glazing or a vision panel, so people can see whether a room is free without opening the door.
  • Think about the door swing — inward into a room with a table costs usable space.
  • Booths need ventilation too. A sealed phone booth without air supply becomes unusable within minutes.
  • Consider furniture depth, not just the table. Circulation around a seated person is what sets the real room size.

Compliance

Subdividing a floor changes escape arrangements, travel distances, occupancy assessment, and detection and sprinkler layouts. Those are determined under NBC 2016, Part 4 and the applicable local rules by the fire consultant and the authority having jurisdiction.

Check while the layout is a drawing.

Standards referenced

Fire and life safety provisions in NBC 2016, Part 4; ventilation rates commonly referenced to ASHRAE 62.1; sound insulation rating in ISO 717-1; interior illumination practice in IS 3646. Occupancy assessment, escape arrangements, ventilation rates and acoustic targets for a specific project must be established by the project's consultants.

Standards referenced

  • NBC 2016, Part 4 — Fire and life safety — occupancy and escape (Bureau of Indian Standards)
  • ASHRAE 62.1 — Ventilation for acceptable indoor air quality (ASHRAE)
  • ISO 717-1 — Rating of sound insulation in buildings (ISO)
  • IS 3646 — Code of practice for interior illumination (Bureau of Indian Standards)

Frequently asked

It depends on how the organisation actually meets, which is measurable if room booking data exists and estimable if it does not. The more useful question is the mix. Booking data from almost any office shows the same pattern: large rooms sit empty much of the week while small rooms and booths are fully booked, because most meetings involve two to four people, not twelve.

Because at planning stage a board room feels like the important thing to get right, and a phone booth feels like a detail. In daily use it is the reverse. A floor without enough small enclosed spaces pushes calls and quick discussions into the open plan, which is the main source of open-plan noise complaints — so under-providing them damages the whole floor, not just the people who wanted a room.

Usually carbon dioxide build-up from inadequate fresh air. A small room with several people needs outdoor air provision sized for that occupancy, and meeting rooms are frequently ventilated as if they were the same density as the open plan. Ventilation rates are commonly referenced to ASHRAE 62.1, and the room's actual occupancy has to drive them.

Flanking. Sound travels over the partition through the ceiling void, along ducts crossing the wall line, or through unsealed junctions and back-to-back sockets. Taking the partition to the slab and sealing every junction and services crossing matters more than the partition's rating — a laboratory rating under ISO 717-1 describes a wall tested without those paths.

Screen size and position, which determines the table position and therefore the room dimensions; where the equipment lives and how it is ventilated and reached; camera position if the room is used for video calls; and containment routes for cabling. Deciding AV after the room is built produces surface trunking and a screen where a door wants to be.

Yes. Subdividing a floor changes escape routes, travel distances and occupancy assessment, and it affects detection and sprinkler layouts. These are determined under NBC 2016 Part 4 by the fire consultant and the authority having jurisdiction, and checking at drawing stage is far cheaper than after ceilings close.

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