Workplace Strategy & Space Planning
Workplace strategy and space planning is the pre-design stage that tests, through test fits and density studies, how many people, cabins and meeting rooms a floor can actually hold. It works from carpet area rather than chargeable area, and checks occupant load, exits and travel distance under NBC 2016 Part 4.
By Dhruv Agarwal · · 2 min read
What we deliver
Test fits, space planning and workplace strategy — the work that happens before design, and that determines whether the office you build actually suits how your people work.
Our founder wrote the first book on workplace strategy, which is a fair signal of how seriously we treat this stage. It is also the cheapest place on a project to change your mind: moving a cabin on a test fit costs nothing, moving it after the ceiling has closed costs a fortnight.
Scope of works
| Stage | What we deliver |
|---|---|
| Brief | Headcount, growth plan, working patterns, meeting culture |
| Floor assessment | Core position, column grid, usable carpet area, daylight |
| Test fit | Two or three layout options against real headcount |
| Density study | Seats per carpet area, circulation widths, support ratios |
| Compliance check | Occupant load, exits and travel distance to NBC 2016 Pt 4 |
| Adjacency planning | Team placement, noise zoning, meeting room distribution |
| Output | Agreed layout that design and costing both work from |
The numbers that actually govern
| Consideration | Why it constrains the plan |
|---|---|
| Carpet area | The only real denominator — never chargeable area |
| Circulation width | Main routes and escape widths are code-driven, not stylistic |
| Occupant load | More people means more exit width under NBC 2016 Pt 4 |
| Meeting room ratio | Usually the first thing that is under-provided |
| Cabin count | Drives partition, ceiling, sprinkler and HVAC cost |
| Daylight depth | Deep floor plates need lighting strategy, which hits ECBC |
Where projects go wrong
- Planning headcount from the leased area. Chargeable area overstates capacity by the whole loading factor — often 25-40%.
- Test fit skipped before lease signing. The most expensive avoidable mistake in the whole process.
- Under-providing meeting rooms. The complaint that surfaces first in every post-occupancy review.
- Adding cabins after the layout is costed. Each one carries ceiling, sprinkler, diffuser and lighting rework behind it.
- Ignoring the compliance consequence of density. Occupant load, exit width and travel distance all move as the plan gets denser.
Why Hagerstone
Planning tied to delivery. We plan floors we then build, so a layout is never proposed that quietly costs a fortune in MEP rework — the team that has to reroute the sprinkler is in the room when the cabin is drawn.
Single-partner execution through to handover, on a 60-day delivery model with a 5-year warranty.
Standards referenced
Occupant load, exit width and travel distance under NBC 2016, Part 4. Lighting power density under ECBC 2017.
Standards referenced
- NBC 2016, Part 4 — Occupant load, exits and travel distance (Bureau of Indian Standards)
- ECBC 2017 — Lighting power density (Bureau of Energy Efficiency)
Frequently asked
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