Office planning Requirements for Rooms

Find out more

How big should an office work room be?

This frequently asked question is initially answered by ASR A1.2 through a list of requirements, experiential values and guideline values.


Floor area

Independently of any specific type, the workroom must have a floor space of at least 8 m2 for the first workstation and at least 6 m2 for each additional workstation. In addition, the ASR provides experiential values and guideline values for the following room designs:

  • Cubicle offices: 8 m2 to 10 m2

  • Open-plan offices: 12 m2 to 15 m2

The larger area required by open-plan offices by comparison with cubicle offices is basically due to the additional traffic routes and the need to plan larger distances between workplaces and/or separating elements such as cabinets between individual work groups in order to avoid excessive acoustic disturbances.


Clear height

ASR A1.2 also lists supplementary requirements for room heights and volumes.

The headroom of workrooms should be:

Floor areaHeight in metersPermissible reduction of height in meters*
up to 50 m²min. 2.50 m–––
more than 50 m²min. 2.75 m0.25 m
more than 100 m²min. 3.00 m0.25 m
more than 2,000 m²min. 3.25 m0.25

* The precondition for reducing room heights is that the reduction should not pose any risks to health. A risk analysis must be conducted in order to ensure that this is the case.


Room volume

ASR A1.2 lists the following requirements for the room volume of office work spaces:

  • For mainly sitting activity: 12 m3
  • For mainly non-sitting activity: 15 m3