Space Planning

In office design, flexibility in planning is essential in order to accommodate changes of occupancy over time in a cost effective manner. For this reason, and due to the potential construction cost savings from the application of a repetitive geometry, it is always desirable to use a modular planning approach.

Most buildings these days work on a building module of 5' or 4'. The size of the building module in an office building is always defined by the architect. The factors that affect such module are based on varying factors such as site conditions, structural systems, spacing of window mullions, columns, ceiling layout, etc. Interior planner and designer for the project will need to response to the same modularity in the design of the interior space. If the project consists mostly of enclosed spaces, the exterior wall and window design will become an important determinant of the room modules since the location of the interior partitions are governed by the mullion modularity along the perimeter walls. If the space is relatively open, then the ceiling module, lighting, telephone and electrical locations will be more of a determinant factor. Space standards are repetitive spaces that must be created using the similiar building modularity in order to gain accessibility to building systems.

To achieve modularity, it is important to simplify the number of different spaces or standards used within an office. In addition to the personnel standards, the common group areas such as supporting area, special use areas or the common use areas can also be easily standardized.
 
 

Space Standard Features

A space standard is a study of the space size, furniture requirements and area arrangement for an area of activity that is responsive to the need of the company. The activity area may be a personnel space or a shared facility such as files, storages, conference room, reception area or etc. A typical space study should include:

An illustration of all furniture requirements
An approximate arrangement of all furniture used in the space
An approximate space size as defined by an area boundary
Furniture clearances and secondary internal circulation for use of the space. Each open and semi-private space includes part of a secondary isle which accounts for clearances and entry into the space. This partial isle will form into a full isle when the spaces are grouped into a work station cluster. This is not true with private spaces which is only accessible through primary isles.
In order to provide for primary internal circulation to work stations and for access into various group areas, there is an extra 25% space allocations to all the space standards. This additional space will be accounted during the department square footage calculation. The circulation allocation varies with different projects based on the client's image, budget constrain, geometry of the space plan and etc. but the 25% average has been proven to be quite effective. In actual planning application, the distribution of primary circulation varies according to types of spaces with 30% for private spaces, 25% for semi-private spaces and 15% for open spaces.