How it works
A space program starts with demand: headcount by team today and over the planning period, how often each group comes in, and the activities they come in for. Interviews, surveys and occupancy data show how much focus, meeting and team space each group actually uses.
Demand is then turned into a list of spaces, each with a count and a standard area: desks, meeting rooms by size, phone rooms, team areas, reception, kitchen, storage and technical rooms. Adding circulation gives the usable area needed, and applying the building's load factor gives the rentable area to search for.
In hybrid workplaces the key input is peak attendance, not headcount. A program built on the busiest regular day, with a planned desk-sharing ratio, can be much smaller than one that gives every employee a desk, and it holds up better once the space opens.
How to measure it
- Peak and average attendance by team, measured from arrivals rather than bookings.
- Use of each existing space type, to decide what to keep, add or cut.
- Planned growth over the lease term, as a range rather than a single number.
Examples
- A company of 400 people with a measured peak of 220 on site programs 240 desks, more small video rooms and two team areas per floor.
- A program shows the new office needs fewer large boardrooms and many more rooms for two to four people.
Common mistakes
- Programming from headcount, which gives every employee a desk they may use only some days.
- Copying meeting room counts from the old office instead of measuring how rooms are used.
- Forgetting support space such as storage, technical rooms and lockers, which then squeezes the work areas.
- Using a single growth figure, so the program is either too tight or too loose.
How Kadence helps
Kadence Workplace Insights provides the measured inputs a space program needs: attendance, occupancy, peak days and no-shows by team, floor and space type. SpaceOps then tests the program in scenarios and goes from a stack plan down to seat-level layouts on real floor plans.
Space management · Office space planning guide · Scenario planning
Frequently asked questions
What is a space program in architecture?
A space program is the list of spaces a building or office must contain, with the number and size of each: desks, meeting rooms, support areas and so on. Architects use it as the brief for layouts, and it is agreed with the client before design starts.
What is the difference between space programming and space planning?
Space programming decides what space is needed and how much of it. Space planning decides where that space goes on a particular floor. Programming comes first and produces the brief; planning turns the brief into a layout.
How do you calculate how much office space you need?
Start from peak attendance, not headcount. Count the people you need to seat on your busiest regular day, add the meeting, focus and support spaces they use, multiply each by a standard area, and add circulation. Then apply the building's load factor to reach the rentable area.
What should a space program include?
Headcount and attendance assumptions, growth ranges, and a schedule of every space type with its count and area: desks, meeting rooms by size, focus rooms, team areas, reception, kitchen, storage and technical rooms. It should also state the desk-sharing ratio and space standards it assumes.
Related terms
- Space planning Deciding how office floor area is divided and allocated, from which teams go on which floors to where each desk and room sits.
- Test fit A quick draft layout that checks whether a space program fits a specific building before a lease is signed.
- Headcount planning (for space) Forecasting how many people will work in each team and location, and turning that into the office space they will need.
- Workspace types The settings an office offers, such as desks, focus rooms, phone booths, huddle rooms and lounges, each suited to a kind of work.
- Desk ratio (desk sharing ratio) The number of people assigned to a workplace for each desk, set from peak attendance and policy.
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