Office Space Planning London | Move Planning & Workplace Layout

Office space planning is the work that decides how a workplace is used before anyone moves a desk. It turns your headcount, working patterns and floor area into a layout that fits, then carries that layout through to a move that delivers it. Done well, office space planning stops you paying for space you do not need, and stops you cramming teams into space that does not work. We plan and deliver workplace layouts and office moves for London businesses, from a single floor to a multi-site estate.

This page sets out the space-planning process, from headcount modelling to a measured layout, and shows how that plan feeds the move itself. If you already know you are relocating, it works hand in hand with our office relocation service, and if you are staying put but changing how the space is used, see workplace reconfiguration.

What office space planning is

Office space planning is the process of matching your people, your ways of working and your business plans to a physical layout. It answers practical questions before they become expensive problems: how many desks you actually need, how much meeting and collaboration space, how circulation and storage work, and how the space flexes as the organisation changes. The output is a measured layout drawing and a plan that a move can be built on, not a rough sketch.

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The office space planning process

Headcount planning. Everything starts with people. We work from your current headcount and your growth or consolidation plans, so the layout is sized for where the business is going, not just where it is today. Planning for the wrong number is the most common and most costly space-planning mistake.
Desk ratios and occupancy. Few offices need one desk per person any more. We model desk-sharing ratios against how your teams actually attend, so you provide enough positions for real peak occupancy without funding empty desks for the rest of the week. That single decision often has the biggest effect on how much floor area you need.
Hybrid and agile working models. How people work shapes the layout as much as how many there are. Hybrid attendance, activity-based and agile working all change the mix of fixed desks, bookable positions, quiet space, collaboration areas and meeting rooms. We plan the layout around your working model rather than dropping a fixed grid of desks into the floor plate.
Measured surveys. A layout is only reliable if the measurements are. We carry out a measured survey of the space, capturing the real dimensions, columns, cores, services, natural light and access, so the design is drawn to what the building actually is. This is also where practical constraints such as lift positions, floor loading and means of escape are recorded.
Layout design. With the numbers and the measured survey in hand, we produce a workplace layout: desk positions, meeting and breakout space, reception, storage and circulation, tested against the headcount and working model. Options can be compared before anything is committed, so you choose a layout on evidence rather than instinct.
How the plan feeds the move. A space plan is not a poster for the wall, it is the specification the move is built from. The agreed layout becomes the destination map for move day: every desk, team and item has a defined place before the first crate is packed. That is the difference between unloading into a plan and unloading into a room.

From space plan to move: our move planning methodology

Once the layout is agreed, move planning turns it into a delivered relocation. We work to a documented methodology so nothing is left to chance:

Discovery and site survey. A survey of the current and new premises confirms inventory, access, lifts and loading, and validates the layout against the real building.
Risk register. Access limits, fragile or high-value items, building conditions and continuity risks are logged and owned, not discovered on the day.
IT cutover plan. The physical move of IT is sequenced around your team's switch-off and switch-on windows, so the network comes back in the right order. This dovetails with our IT relocation.
Staff communications plan. Employees receive clear packing instructions, labelling systems and the new floor plan, so everyone knows what to do and where they are going.
Building-management approvals. We liaise with landlords and managing agents at both ends to book lifts and loading bays, confirm insurance and secure permits.
Move-day sequencing. A move manager runs the day to a timed schedule, controlling the order of loading and unloading so critical teams are operational first.
Post-move sign-off. A walk round confirms placement against the layout, resolves snags, and accounts for every item before the project is closed.

Space planning for London offices

Planning space in London carries its own realities. Floor plates are often irregular, buildings are older and more constrained, and lift, loading and access rules shape both the layout and the move that delivers it. We plan with those constraints in view from the measured survey onwards, so the layout is deliverable in the building you actually have. We work across the capital and the South East, and you can see our full coverage area here.