How it works
A neighborhood groups desks and nearby settings into a zone with a clear owner and purpose. Common types are departmental (one team), project (a cross-functional group), activity (people who need the same conditions, such as quiet) and functional (people who need specific equipment or amenities).
Neighborhoods are usually scheduled. A team gets its zone on its team days, and the zone opens to everyone else on other days, so a tighter desk ratio still feels like the team's own space. Priority access lets chosen teams book a neighborhood before it opens to everyone.
Neighborhoods are also the working unit of space planning. Restacks, team adjacency plans and desk ratios are set per neighborhood, and occupancy by neighborhood shows which teams have outgrown their zone and which have spare desks.
Types of office neighborhood
Most floors mix several types. Neighborhoods differ from hot desking because desks stay shared but only within the team's zone, and from assigned seating because nobody owns a desk.
| Type | Who shares it | How long it lasts | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Departmental | One team or department | Ongoing, reviewed when the team changes | Finance sits together near its meeting rooms |
| Project | A cross-functional group | The life of the project | A launch team sits next to design for a quarter |
| Activity | People who need the same setting, such as quiet | Ongoing | A quiet zone for focused work, away from meeting rooms |
| Functional | People who need specific equipment or amenities | Ongoing | Engineers near the lab, or staff who need extra monitors |
| Scheduled | Different teams on different days | Set by a rotating schedule | Sales uses a zone early in the week, marketing later |
How to measure it
- Occupancy of each neighborhood on its scheduled days and on other days.
- Share of a team's office days spent in its own neighborhood.
- Overflow: team members booking outside the zone because it is full.
Examples
- Finance uses the 'Numbers Nook' neighborhood on Tuesdays and Wednesdays; on other days any employee can book it.
- A product launch team gets a project neighborhood next to design for three months, and then the zone returns to the shared pool.
Benchmarks
Kadence's guidance on office neighborhoods puts a typical neighborhood at 30 to 60 people.
Kadence: Office neighborhoods for a better workplace experience
Common mistakes
- Drawing neighborhoods once and never revisiting them as teams grow and attendance changes.
- Sizing a zone to team headcount instead of peak-day attendance.
- Locking neighborhoods every day, so empty zones sit next to crowded ones.
- Placing teams that rely on each other far apart.
How Kadence helps
Kadence assigns teams to neighborhoods on chosen days, and the Neighborhood Scheduler plans which team uses which neighborhood by date on rotating or shared floors. Priority booking access gives selected teams first access, spaces and neighborhoods can be created and edited in bulk from a spreadsheet, and SpaceOps publishes approved plans into live neighborhoods.
Desk booking software · Space management · SpaceOps
Frequently asked questions
What are office neighborhoods?
Office neighborhoods are zones of flexible desks for people who share a team, project, working style or equipment need. They give employees a home base without an assigned desk and make it easy to find colleagues on office days.
What is neighborhood seating?
Neighborhood seating is a layout in which desks are grouped into zones for teams or activities rather than assigned to individuals. Within a zone, people either take a free desk or book one in advance.
How big should an office neighborhood be?
Kadence guidance puts a typical neighborhood at 30 to 60 people. Size each one to the team's peak-day attendance plus a buffer, not to its full headcount, and use occupancy data to adjust.
How do you set up office neighborhoods?
List your teams and how they work, rate which teams need to sit near each other, pick zones that suit each activity and give them names people remember. Then set which days each team uses its zone, measure occupancy and adjust.
Related terms
- Hot desking and hoteling Two ways to share desks: hot desking is first come, first served; hoteling means reserving a desk in advance and checking in.
- Team adjacency Placing teams that work closely together near each other, and keeping those links intact through every move.
- Desk ratio (desk sharing ratio) The number of people assigned to a workplace for each desk, set from peak attendance and policy.
- Assigned desk A desk reserved for one person, either permanently or on set days, instead of being shared through booking.
- Space allocation Deciding which people, teams and activities get which desks, zones and rooms, and whether each is assigned, shared or bookable.
- Neighborhood manager The person who owns a neighborhood's seating rules, capacity and changes, usually a team lead or site admin.
Kadence editorial team · Last reviewed