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Office occupancy rates ArchiMentor Knowledge

Printed from the A rchiMentor Knowledge pages on Sunda 4 December 2011 - www.archimentor.net

Office occupanc rates

Introduction
Reference sources
Guidance

Introduction
Occupanc rates are an important design factor for man building t pes and are the basis for man of the
requirements of the Building Regulations.
Recommendations for calculating occupanc rates var from source to source and, in certain cases, even
statutor documents ma differ.
For man building t pes, e.g. schools, it will be comparativel eas to decide how man people will be in
a certain part of the building at a specific time.
This will be less straightforward for other building t pes, e.g. speculative offices, for which the actual
occupanc rates will not be known during the earl design stages and assumptions must be made.

Reference sources
There are now four ke documents to be considered when deciding on the occupanc rates to be used for
office design.
Building Regulations Approved Document B - Volume 2

Appendi C, Table C1 [Link]

This lists the "Floor space factor", described in terms of m2/person, for fifteen distinct "T pe(s) of
accommodation".
These factors are used to determine the number of persons likel to be using a particular door, stair, or
corridor when calculating the minimum width (for fire escape purposes).
Table 1 gives a figure of 6.0 m2 /person for offices. This is generall considered to be a over-stringent
requirement but project-specific negotiation with the Building Control Officer will be required if ou wish
to design to a lower occupanc rate.
Building Regulations Approved Document G

Section 1, clauses 1.4 and 1.13 [Link]

Clause 1.4 states that the number of (sanitar ) appliances ma be determined b reference to various
Acts of Parliament relevant to the building t pe.
Clause 1.13 states that the requirement can also be met b "following the relevant recommendations" of
BS 6465 Sanitar installations, Part 1 Code of Practice for scale of provision, selection and installation of
sanitar appliances.
All these documents provide guidance, or state requirements, for the provision of sanitar appliances
based on the number of occupants of a building. None of them, however, provide an guidance on how
these numbers should be calculated.
The Building Control Officer will require a statement on the assumed occupanc rate in order to calculate
the number of occupants of the building and, hence, the adequac of the sanitar appliance provision.
British Standard BS6465-1:2006

Section 6, clause 6.1

"Calculations for the number of persons using the facilities for sanitar purposes should be the
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Office occupancy rates ArchiMentor Knowledge

ame a

ho e

ed fo fi e e cape p po e ."

Read more about this clause on the Sanitary Provision page.

British Council for Offices Guide 2005

This is most highly-regarded "industry standard" for the design of offices.

5.1.3 Occupanc Standards
This paragraph is headed 12m2 - 17m2 per person of net internal area.
It continues to state that "In he pa
ha

fe

he no m ha been 10m2 pe pe

b ilding a e occ pied o a den i

ha i

on ... b

e ea ch ha

ho n

hi high."

It also refers to densities as high as 4m2 to 6m2 per person for trading desks and call centres.

Guidance
Although there is, at present (July 2007), no statutory requirement to use the same number of persons in
the calculations for both fire escape purposes and sanitary provision, the existence of British Standard
BS6465-1:2006, and its likely incorporation into future editions of Approved Documents B and G, is
deemed by most architects to be sufficient reason to work to these requirements now.
It is important to remember that Building Regulations Approved Document B - Volume 2, Appendix C,
clause 2, states:
"The occ pan capaci of a oom, o e , b ilding o pa of a b ilding i :
a. he ma im m n mbe of pe on i i de igned o hold; o (o emboldening)
b. he n mbe calc la ed ... Table C1 ..."
With theoretical occupancy rates for offices varying from 4m2 to 17m2 per person, it is obviously crucial to
make some firm decisions before starting to calculate the widths of fire escapes and the number of
sanitary appliances.
Whatever the view of the British Council for Offices concerning the 10m2 per person norm, you are
unlikely to be able to convince the Building Control Officer to agree a lower occupancy rate if you intend
to base your calculations on the area per person.
You may, of course, agree a specific number of occupants with the client and use this figure as the basis
for the calculations in both Approved Document B and Approved Document G. In these circumstances, you
should ensure that the client is fully aware of the implications of this decision: too low a number and
substantial building works may be required in the future should the occupancy rise; too high a number
and the sanitary provisions may increase the core size significantly compared with "normal practice" prior
to 2006.
2008. A rchiMentor.

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