Area and cost per seat
| Layout | Area per seat | Fit-out rate | Cost per seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open plan, bench desks, 1,200 mm | 60 – 75 sq ft | ₹2,200 – 3,400 per sq ft | ₹1.4 – 2.4 lakh |
| Open plan, workstations with screens | 75 – 90 sq ft | ₹2,400 – 3,600 per sq ft | ₹1.9 – 3.1 lakh |
| Mixed: open plan plus 20% cabins | 85 – 105 sq ft | ₹2,500 – 3,800 per sq ft | ₹2.2 – 3.8 lakh |
| Cabin-based, 100 sq ft cabins | 110 – 140 sq ft | ₹2,600 – 4,000 per sq ft | ₹3.0 – 5.4 lakh |
| Cabin-based, larger cabins | 140 – 160 sq ft | ₹2,800 – 4,200 per sq ft | ₹4.0 – 6.5 lakh |
Cost per square foot is similar between layouts. The difference is area consumed per person, which is also the recurring rent difference for the whole lease term.
The rent consequence, which dwarfs the fit-out
For a 100-person organisation, the layout decision changes the floor plate required by several thousand square feet, and rent runs for the whole lease term while the fit-out is paid once.
| Layout | Area for 100 seats | Fit-out, one time | Annual rent at ₹180 per sq ft per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open plan with enclosed rooms | 8,500 sq ft | ₹2.1 – 3.2 crore | ₹1.84 crore |
| Mixed, 20% cabins | 10,000 sq ft | ₹2.5 – 3.8 crore | ₹2.16 crore |
| Cabin based | 13,000 sq ft | ₹3.4 – 5.2 crore | ₹2.81 crore |
Rent figures are illustrative at a representative Grade-A rate; the point is the ratio, which holds across submarkets. Over a five-year lease the area difference is the dominant number.
Why open plan fails when it fails
- Too few enclosed rooms. An open floor with two meeting rooms for eighty people means every call happens at a desk. Provide one meeting room per 12–15 seats and one phone booth per 15–20.
- No acoustic treatment. A hard-surfaced open floor with a bare ceiling is unusable for concentrated work. Absorbent ceiling treatment is the single most effective intervention.
- Desks facing each other with no screens. Visual distraction is as disruptive as noise and far cheaper to fix.
- No zoning. Put the noisy functions together and the concentration-dependent ones together. Mixing sales and engineering on one bench run pleases nobody.
- Ignoring the perimeter. Cabins along the glass line take the daylight away from eighty people to give it to eight. If cabins are unavoidable, put them inboard.
Acoustics: the line item that makes open plan work
- Absorbent ceiling — perforated gypsum, mineral tile or hanging baffles — at ₹180–450 per sq ft. This is the highest-value acoustic spend on any open floor.
- Carpet rather than hard flooring in the desk areas. Carpet tile at ₹120–300 per sq ft absorbs footfall and chair noise.
- Desk screens of 400–600 mm above the work surface, in an absorbent material.
- Phone booths and focus pods, at ₹1.8–4.5 lakh each installed, and they are used constantly.
- Meeting rooms built full height to the slab with insulated cavities. A meeting room whose partition stops at the false ceiling is not a meeting room, it is a glass box with a door.
What hybrid working changed
Attendance patterns since 2020 have shifted the question from how many desks to what proportion of the floor should be enclosed and bookable. On several recent Mumbai fit-outs the seat count fell and the meeting room count rose.
- Unassigned seating at a 0.6 to 0.8 desk-to-headcount ratio is now common, but it only works with lockers, a booking system and a clear-desk convention.
- Video calls are the dominant activity change. Every enclosed room needs power, data, a screen position and acoustic separation; a room without those is not usable for the thing people actually do in it.
- Phone booths have gone from a nice addition to a necessity. One per fifteen seats is a working number.
- Peak-day attendance, not average, sets the seat count. A floor sized for the average is unusable on Tuesdays.
- The area saved by unassigned seating is usually spent on enclosed rooms rather than banked, and that is the right trade.
Verdict by organisation
| Organisation | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Technology and product teams | Open plan with generous focus rooms |
| Professional services with client confidentiality | Mixed: cabins for partners, open for associates |
| Law firms and financial advisory | Cabin based, or high-density enclosed rooms |
| Sales-led organisations | Open plan with many phone booths |
| Startups under 40 people | Open plan with two to three enclosed rooms |
| Hybrid working, low daily attendance | Open plan, unassigned seating, more meeting space |
| Traditional hierarchies | Mixed, with cabins inboard and daylight to the open floor |
What we specify most often on Mumbai floor plates: open plan at 75–85 sq ft per seat, cabins inboard rather than along the glass, one meeting room per 12–15 seats, phone booths at one per 15–20, an absorbent ceiling throughout and carpet in the desk areas. The acoustic budget is not the place to economise.
Frequently asked questions
How much area per seat should we plan?+
Sixty to ninety square feet per seat for open plan including circulation and support space, and 110 to 160 for a cabin-based layout. Those figures include the meeting rooms and pantry; a bare desk footprint is much smaller and misleading to plan from.
Is open plan actually cheaper?+
The fit-out rate per square foot is similar. The saving is in area per seat, which reduces both the fit-out total and, more significantly, the rent for the whole lease term. On a hundred-seat office the area difference is typically 3,000–4,500 sq ft.
How many meeting rooms do we need?+
One per twelve to fifteen seats, plus one phone booth per fifteen to twenty. Under-providing enclosed space is the single most common reason an open-plan office is disliked, and it is far cheaper to provide at fit-out than to retrofit.
Will acoustic panels make an open office quiet?+
Quieter, not quiet. Panels absorb reflected sound within the space, which reduces the general noise level and improves speech clarity. They do not stop you hearing a colleague two desks away. For that you need enclosed rooms, which is why the room provision matters more than the panels.
Where should cabins go if we must have them?+
Inboard, away from the glass line. Placing cabins along the windows takes the daylight from the majority to give it to a few, and it is the decision most likely to be resented. Glazed cabin fronts help, but position matters more.