Space planning: the numbers that matter
Every office layout is a negotiation between desk count and everything else. Get the ratio wrong and you either pay rent on empty desks or run a floor where nobody can find a room to take a call.
| Work style | Usable sq ft / person | Desk : seat ratio | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dense open plan | 60 – 80 | 1 : 1 | Sales floors, BPO, high-attendance teams |
| Standard office | 80 – 110 | 1 : 1 | Mixed teams with some cabins |
| Hybrid / activity-based | 90 – 120 | 0.6 – 0.8 : 1 | Teams in 2–3 days a week |
| Executive / cabin-heavy | 110 – 150 | 1 : 1 | Law, finance, consulting |
Usable area excludes core, lifts and common washrooms. Run your own numbers with the space-per-employee calculator.
What a complete office scope includes
- Space audit & test fit — proving the floor plate holds your headcount before you sign a lease.
- Zoning — separating loud, collaborative and focus areas rather than mixing them.
- Workstations & cabins — desk sizing, storage, cable management, cabin glazing.
- Meeting & focus rooms — a mix of 2, 4, 8 and 12-seat rooms plus phone booths.
- Reception & breakout — the two spaces that carry your brand.
- MEP coordination — HVAC distribution, lighting, power and data to every position.
- Acoustics — ceiling absorption, partition specification, and separation of noisy zones.
- AV & IT — video-conference rooms, displays, structured cabling, access control.
Design and build under one accountable roof
Meeting rooms: the thing everyone under-provisions
The most common defect we are asked to fix in an existing office is not the finish — it is that thirty people share two meeting rooms and every video call happens at a desk. Hybrid working made this sharply worse: when half the team is remote, almost every meeting needs a room with a camera.
| Headcount | Small rooms (2–4) | Medium (6–8) | Large (10+) | Phone booths |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 2 | 1 | 0 – 1 | 2 |
| 50 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 100 | 6 – 8 | 4 | 2 | 8 |
| 200 | 12 | 6 – 8 | 3 | 14 |
If people are taking calls at their desks, you did not save money on meeting rooms — you spent it on everyone else's concentration.
Greenbox workplace team
Selected work by Greenbox Design Studio. Tap any image to enlarge.
Frequently asked questions
How much office space do I need per employee?+
Between 60 and 150 usable sq ft per person depending on work style. A dense open plan works at 60–80, a standard office at 80–110, a hybrid activity-based office at 90–120, and a cabin-heavy professional firm at 110–150. Usable area excludes lift cores and common washrooms.
What does office interior design include?+
Space audit and test fit, zoning, workstation and cabin design, meeting and focus rooms, reception and breakout, MEP coordination, acoustics, AV and IT provisioning — and with a design-build studio, the fit-out execution itself.
How many meeting rooms does an office need?+
For a hybrid workplace, budget roughly one small room per 8–12 people, one medium room per 20–25, and a phone booth per 10–12. A 50-person office typically needs four small rooms, two medium, one large and four booths.
Should I design for current or future headcount?+
Design the services and infrastructure for a three-year headcount and fit out furniture for today. Adding power, data and HVAC capacity later is disruptive and expensive; adding desks to a space already serviced for them is trivial.
How long does an office interior project take?+
Six to nine weeks for a straightforward warm-shell office, nine to fourteen for mid-specification, and fourteen to twenty weeks for a full hybrid workplace with extensive AV and joinery — plus two to four weeks of landlord approvals at the start.