# 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.

## 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**.

## Frequently asked questions

### How many people fit on a floor?

It follows from carpet area, not chargeable area, and from your mix of open desks, cabins and meeting rooms. Indian corporate offices commonly plan somewhere between 60 and 100 sq ft of carpet per person once circulation, meeting rooms and support areas are counted. Denser than that starts to fail on circulation width and air changes rather than on desk space. The honest answer comes from a test fit, not a rule of thumb.

### What is a test fit and why does it matter before signing a lease?

A test fit is a rough layout drawn on the actual floor plate before you commit, showing whether your headcount, cabins and meeting rooms genuinely fit. It routinely changes the leasing decision — a floor that looks large enough on a brochure can lose badly to core position, column grid or an awkward shape. Doing it before signing costs a few days; discovering it afterwards costs a lease term.

### Does the layout change the fit-out cost much?

Substantially, and mostly through knock-ons rather than the partitions themselves. Every cabin wall means ceiling cut and re-formed, sprinklers relocated, a diffuser moved and a lighting circuit changed. A cabin-heavy layout can cost meaningfully more per square foot than an open-plan one on the same floor with the same finishes.

## Sources

- [NBC 2016, Part 4](https://www.bis.gov.in/standards/national-building-code/?lang=en) — Occupant load, exits and travel distance
- [ECBC 2017](https://beeindia.gov.in/) — Lighting power density

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Source: https://hagerstone.com/services/interior-fit-out/workplace-strategy-and-space-planning