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 Tools: Space Planning



When completing any workplace transformation project, identifying the ‘envelope’ of built space required to facilitate the efficient running of your organisation is integral. This tool aims to highlight the main issues you should consider when defining the ‘space envelope’ and the space brief that will inform the project as it moves forward. It is useful to be familiar with the RICS Code of Measuring Practice before undertaking space planning.

Project Timeline

Firstly it is essential that the project team understand the stage at which a project is currently at before they begin to define the space envelope required. If the project is at a high, strategic level then it is more acceptable to have an approximate space calculation to use in the early feasibility testing. For example a blanket ‘core space’ need metric might be applied to a defined workforce number. Clearly as the project becomes more detailed then the assumptions underpinning the space need to become more robust.
Given the space need is a key driver in determining both capital and revenue costs, the project team should strive to ensure as much accuracy in determining the space need as possible. This needs to be tempered, however, with the following issues:
  1. The project may not be at a depth which allows accurate space need definition.
  2. An organisations’ space need will vary over time, with constantly altering workforce numbers and individual staff’s space needs.
  3. Potential for reducing individual staff’s space needs will improve as technology etc improves.
Considering the three issues above, there needs to be a balance identified between a reasonably fixed space need assumption to allow feasibility calculations, but with enough scope and flex for the space need to be altered as greater depth and project knowledge is gained. It is usually recommended that within feasibility testing the space need is one of the variables focused on within sensitivity testing. Further guidance on determining Office Space efficiencies can be found here.

The diagram below highlights the need for the project team to be aware of the need for ‘in depth’ space analysis and the timing of it within a workplace transformation project. The top line shows a lifecycle for a workplace transformation, aligned with RIBA’s plan of work below. The use of blue for the two lozenges show where in a project the two processes might align, and where more detailed space need should be defined.



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