# 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.

## The mix matters more than the count

| Room type | Typical demand | Typical provision |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Phone booth, 1 person | Constant | Rarely enough |
| Small room, 2–4 | Highest of all | Under-provided |
| Medium room, 6–8 | Moderate | Usually adequate |
| Large room, 10–16 | Occasional | Over-provided |
| Board room | Infrequent | Always 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:

| Requirement | What it involves | Reference |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Fresh air sized for the room's occupancy | Six people in a small room is a far higher density than the open plan | **ASHRAE 62.1** |
| Acoustic separation that accounts for flanking | Partition to slab, junctions sealed, services crossings treated, outlets offset | **ISO 717-1** |
| Lighting suited to both faces and screens | Not lit only for the table | **IS 3646** |
| AV decided before construction | Screen 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.

## Frequently asked questions

### How many meeting rooms does an office need?

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.

### Why are small rooms and booths so undersupplied?

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.

### What makes a meeting room feel uncomfortable after twenty minutes?

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.

### Why do meeting rooms leak sound even when well built?

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.

### What should be decided about AV before construction?

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.

### Does adding rooms affect compliance?

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.

## Sources

- [NBC 2016, Part 4](https://www.bis.gov.in/standards/national-building-code/?lang=en) — Fire and life safety — occupancy and escape
- [ASHRAE 62.1](https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/bookstore/standards-62-1-62-2) — Ventilation for acceptable indoor air quality
- [ISO 717-1](https://www.iso.org/standards.html) — Rating of sound insulation in buildings
- [IS 3646](https://standards.bis.gov.in/website/published-standards/department-wise) — Code of practice for interior illumination

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Source: https://hagerstone.com/services/interior-fit-out/meeting-room-design-and-sizing