A space standard is defined as the am ount o f space or area given to each person who works in the building (Eley & M armot, 1995:50). The specific am ount o f floorspace varies by the grade o f the employee or by the type o f job, the use o f equipm ent or machinery, the degree o f privacy required and the need for storage (Croner's Premises M anagement, 1987; Index for Coverage to Offices, 1964). Table 3.1 shows the range o f space standards by classification o f occupation and table 3.2 shows the range o f classification standards according to space type. In table 3.1, it is com m on practice to classify according to the Standards Occupation Classification (SOC) 1960. Later developments have applied the functional classification according to the N ew Earnings Survey, which differentiates occupations by manual or non-m anual types. Since then, little has changed with regard to the basis o f space per person standardisation.
Table 3.1: Range of space standards by occupation classification, sq.m
•SOC O c c u p a t i o n t > p e l O D , 1960 L a n g d o n & K e i g h l e y , 1964 M a r c h . M a r t i n , 1 966 O R B I T 2. 1985 W i l l i a m & W o r t h i n g t o n , 1986 BI F. M P r o t o c o l M a j o r Cirotip 1 M a n a g e r s a nd a d m i n i s t r a t o r s 12-33 9 12-19 14-27 D i r ec t o rs 18-60 S e n i o r i n ana ti er s 14-40 A s s is ta n t m a n a g e r s 19-30 Ge n er a l a dt ni n i s t r at o r s 17-30 Ma j o r Gr o t i p 2 Pr o fe s s i o n a l s ■- I 2 7-9 5-15 M a j o r G r ot ip 3 A s s o c i a t e p r o f e s s i o n a l s 8- 9 6-7 M a j o r G r o t i p 4 Cl er ic al & se cr et ar ia l 5-7 4- 6 15 4- 9 5 4 - 10 Ma j o r G r o t i p 6 Pe r so na l & p r ot e c t i v e s er \' ic es M a j o r Gr o t i p 7 Sa les o c c u p a t i o n 4 M a n n i n y , ( 1 9 6 5 ) L a i i ÿ d o n & K e i g h l e y . ( 1 9 6 4 ) H a u k e s D . I I 9 6 S ) D u f t y F . ( I 9 S 3 ) W i l l i a m & W o r t h i n g t o n . ( 1 9 8 6 ) B I F \ I P r o t o c o l c ( 1 9 9 3 ) S O C ( S t a n d a r d O c c u p a t i o n C l a s s i f r c a t i o n )
Table 3.2: Range o f space standards by w orkspace type
SO C Occup ation
type
W or k sp ace
type Size in sq.m
Major Gro up 1 Mana gers and
administrators Dedicated office 9.3 Directors 20.4 Senior m anagers 16.7 Assistant managers General administrators
Major Gro up 2 Professionals Shared office 7.4
Major Group 3 Associate
professionals
Shared < 5 persons
Major Gro up 4 Clerical &
secretarial Shared > 5 persons 4.6 Major Gro up 6 Personal & protective services Dedicated workstation 4.6
Major Gro up 7 Sales
occupation
Shared
workstation 4.6
Wide variations o f space allowance per person occur in practice across different organisations. At the policy level, it has been clearly dem onstrated each person's position and title actually determines the workspace allowance for the individual, thus “the higher the senior position, the larger the workspace, or the lower the rank position in the organisation, the smaller the workspace" (Duffy, 1992). The space standard is used as a design tool which assists users in solving their special needs in terms o f determining their size and type o f workspace. Traditionally the assignm ent o f space standards uses a static representation o f space per person, constant either as sq.m per person by occupation types or sq.m per workstation by occupation.
There are two systems for setting space standards. Firstly, m easurem ents are derived from the anthropom etries o f workers themselves when perform ing specific activities. Secondly, standards are derived from systematic user surveys carried out within organisations. In the former approach, anthropom etric m easurem ents are used to calibrate the height o f desks, chairs, filing cabinets and their accessibility by jo b 51
function; this is particularly well docum ented by Hawkes (1968:23) and Langdon (1963a). In the latter approach, an extensive user survey measures user satisfaction am ong different job types across the industry. This approach not only gives some idea o f the am ount o f space required for different jobs, but also offers a representative picture o f current practice (Langdon & Keighley, 1964:335). User satisfaction has been advanced as a useful technique in setting space standards (Langdon, 1963a:335; M usgrove, 1981). The survey requires occupants to appraise the spatial feature by asking them to assess the conditions o f their office facilities on a subjective scale. The qualitative description is then transform ed into satisfaction scores and then correlated w ith the actual amount o f space provided in each office. These results are used to identify the minimum requirements for a chosen level o f satisfaction. The choice o f level o f satisfaction will vary among organisations. If 95 percent o f the cases reported a 75 percent satisfaction level with the space provided, then the chosen level o f satisfaction is 75 percent (Langdon & Keighley, 1964:944). Thus, it can be interpreted that the choice o f 75 per cent satisfaction will represent a reasonable level o f provision at a known amount.
These types o f user surveys are not com monly carried out. Even when they are executed, the information is not readily available or widely disseminated to allow any meaningful comparison to be carried out. A recent survey o f this nature, known as the W orkplace Benchmark Group 1996, involving a consortium o f thirty five com panies, has been handled and adm inistered by a private consultant on 1000 people (Facilities M anagem ent Journal, 1996:8). The results are not accessible to those outside the consortium. Nonetheless, the space per person policy in any organisation would need to comply with legislative requirem ents that the minimum provision o f 3.7sq.m or 11.3sq.ft per employee is m aintained as stipulated in the Offices, Shops and Railway
Premises Act 1963 and the Approved Code o f Practice M anagem ent (ACOPM ) o f Health & Safety, 1992.
3.1.1 Occupancy Density
Another concept which is closely related to space standard is the occupancy density "when each person has a single space they generally use, and it is o f a standard size, it is com paratively easy to work out the density or average lettable area per person” (Eley & M armot, 1995:62). The area under consideration includes prim ary workspace, support space, ancillary and prim ary circulation spaces. The norm tends to be an average o f 10 sq.m net per person (British Council for Offices (BCG), 1994), although the reported best practice is 14 sq.m net per person (BCG, 1994). Over the last twenty years, occupancy densities have not changed significantly, as shown in table 3.3.
Table 3.3: Average Occupancy Density of Offices
Y e a r M e a n o c c u p a t i o n ra tio in s q .m 1970(1) 14-16 1990 (2 ) 14 1 992(3) 13 S o u r c e : 1 ) E M E P C . ( 1966) 2) B r it is h C o u n c i l o f O f f ic e s . ( 1 9 9 4 ) 3) B S R I A . ( 1 9 9 2 )
The difference between space standard and occupancy density is the inclusion o f primary circulation. The ratio o f the latter is derived by dividing the whole lettable area by the number o f people working in the building. Usually, this is the sim plest standard used to guide an organisation in estim ating its gross space requirement and to indicate its potential occupancy cost (Apgar, 1993). This concept has becom e increasingly important and useful to designers when assessing the overall space
requirements o f an organisation and in planning the use o f buildings at a detailed level. If space standards is used as a design tool, the occupancy ratio is generated after the facility is in use to give the net space each occupant consumes.