Every successful office project starts with a plan. Before you choose finishes, furniture, or fixtures, you need to understand how your space will actually be used. Office space planning is the foundation that determines whether a workplace supports your team or works against them. It shapes movement, communication, comfort, and ultimately the bottom line. Without a clear spatial strategy, even the most beautifully designed offices can fall short of expectations, wasting valuable square footage and limiting the way people work together.

What Is Office Space Planning?

Office space planning is the strategic process of organising a floor plan so that every square metre serves a clear purpose. It sits at the intersection of architecture, workplace strategy, and operational efficiency. While interior design focuses on aesthetics, materials, and finishes, space planning is concerned with layout, flow, and function. It answers fundamental questions: where should teams sit in relation to one another? How many meeting rooms does the business actually need? Is there enough circulation space for safe, comfortable movement?

Done well, space planning has a measurable impact on productivity. Research consistently shows that employees who have the right mix of focus space, collaboration zones, and informal breakout areas perform better and report higher satisfaction. On the cost side, an optimised layout can reduce the total amount of space a business needs to lease, translating directly into lower rent and service charges. In London, where office rents can exceed £70 per square foot in prime locations, even a modest reduction in wasted space delivers significant savings year after year.

Our Space Planning Process

We follow a structured process that moves from understanding your business to delivering a fully resolved floor plan. Each stage builds on the last, ensuring the final layout is grounded in real data rather than assumptions.

Workplace Analysis: We begin by getting to know your organisation. This involves stakeholder interviews, departmental questionnaires, and a review of your current headcount, growth projections, and working patterns. The goal is to build a clear picture of how your teams operate day to day and what the space needs to support.

Occupancy Studies: If you have an existing office, we carry out occupancy studies to measure how different areas are actually used. Sensor data, manual counts, and booking system analysis reveal which zones are overcrowded, which are underutilised, and where demand peaks throughout the week. This evidence base is invaluable for right-sizing the new layout.

Adjacency Planning: Not every team needs to sit next to every other team, but some adjacencies are critical. We map out the relationships between departments, shared resources, and communal facilities to determine which groups benefit most from proximity. This reduces unnecessary movement and strengthens collaboration where it matters.

Zoning: With adjacencies established, we divide the floor plate into functional zones: focused work areas, collaborative neighbourhoods, social hubs, quiet rooms, utility spaces, and reception areas. Zoning ensures that different activities do not conflict with one another and that acoustic, visual, and environmental conditions are appropriate for each zone.

Test Fits: Before committing to a single layout, we produce multiple test fit options. These scaled drawings explore different configurations and desk-to-meeting-room ratios, allowing you to compare approaches side by side. Test fits are particularly useful during lease negotiations, as they demonstrate whether a prospective building can accommodate your requirements.

Final Layouts: Once a preferred direction is agreed, we develop detailed layout drawings that specify furniture positions, power and data locations, partition lines, and circulation routes. These drawings form the basis for the fit-out programme and ensure every contractor is working to the same spatial brief.

Types of Space Planning

New Office Fit-Out Planning: Starting from a bare shell or Cat A finish gives you maximum flexibility. We design the layout from scratch, optimising every element for your specific needs without the constraints of existing partitions or services.

Existing Office Optimisation: Many businesses do not need to move; they simply need to use their current space more effectively. We reconfigure layouts to address pain points such as overcrowded desks, underused meeting rooms, or a lack of informal collaboration areas.

Hybrid Workplace Planning: With many London businesses now operating hybrid models, space planning must account for fluctuating daily occupancy. We design layouts that flex between high-attendance and low-attendance days, incorporating hot-desking zones, bookable focus pods, and versatile meeting spaces that serve multiple purposes.

Expansion and Consolidation: Whether you are growing into additional floors or consolidating multiple sites into one, space planning ensures the transition is smooth and the new arrangement supports your operational goals. We model different scenarios to find the most cost-effective configuration.

Pre-Lease Space Assessment: Before you sign a lease, we can assess prospective buildings to determine whether the floor plate, core position, and structural grid will work for your business. This avoids costly surprises after you have committed to a property.

Benefits of Professional Space Planning

Reduce wasted space: Identify and repurpose underutilised areas so that every square metre contributes to the business.
Improve workflow: Position teams, resources, and facilities in logical proximity to minimise unnecessary movement and disruption.
Support hybrid working: Create flexible layouts that adapt to varying daily occupancy without feeling empty on quiet days or overcrowded on busy ones.
Accommodate growth: Build in capacity for future headcount increases so that the office does not need a complete redesign every time you hire.
Reduce cost per head: A well-planned layout can increase desk density without sacrificing comfort, lowering the per-person property cost.
Improve wellbeing: Provide access to natural light, adequate ventilation, quiet zones, and social spaces that promote physical and mental health at work.

Space Planning Standards and Guidelines

UK workplace regulations set the baseline for safe, comfortable office environments. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 require a minimum of 11 cubic metres of space per person, which typically translates to around 4.6 square metres of usable floor area per workstation in a standard office with 2.4-metre ceiling heights. While this is the legal minimum, most modern space plans allow between 8 and 12 square metres per person to provide a more comfortable working environment.

Current guidance on desk spacing recommends a minimum of 1.2 metres between the edge of one desk and the back of the adjacent chair, ensuring people can move in and out of their seats without disturbing colleagues. Primary circulation routes should be at least 1.6 metres wide to allow two people to pass comfortably, while secondary routes between desk clusters can be narrower at around 1.0 to 1.2 metres.

Meeting room ratios vary depending on working culture, but a common benchmark is one small meeting room (2 to 4 people) per 15 to 20 desks and one larger room (6 to 10 people) per 40 to 50 desks. In hybrid workplaces where video calls are frequent, the ratio of small rooms and phone booths needs to increase significantly. Breakout and social areas should account for approximately 10 to 15 per cent of the total usable floor area, giving people genuine alternatives to working at their desks throughout the day.

How Much Does Space Planning Cost?

The cost of office space planning in London depends on the scope and complexity of the project. As a standalone service, space planning typically ranges from £3 to £8 per square foot. Smaller projects or single-floor layouts tend to sit at the lower end of that range, while multi-floor programmes, phased relocations, or projects requiring detailed occupancy studies will be closer to the upper end.

When space planning forms part of a full office fit-out or refurbishment project, the design fees are usually included within the overall project cost. This is the most common arrangement for our clients, as it ensures the space plan, interior design, and technical specification are developed together as a single, coordinated package. We are always happy to discuss your requirements and provide a clear fee proposal before any work begins.

Areas We Serve

We deliver office space planning across London, working with businesses of all sizes from startups taking their first office to established organisations managing large headquarters. Our team works on projects throughout the capital, including the following areas:

If your office is in a different part of London, please get in touch. We cover all London boroughs and the surrounding home counties.

Get Your Free Space Assessment

Not sure whether your current office layout is working as hard as it should? We offer a complimentary space assessment to help you understand the potential of your workplace. Our team will visit your office, review the existing layout, discuss your business objectives, and provide initial recommendations on how the space could be improved.

There is no obligation and no cost. It is simply a chance to explore what is possible before committing to a project. Whether you are planning a full refurbishment, considering a move, or just want to make better use of what you already have, a space assessment is the ideal starting point.

Book your free space assessment today or call our London office to speak with one of our space planning consultants.