Are your offices actually working for you?

A company relocating or renovating its premises is not really after pretty offices: it wants spaces where teams can focus, meet and cross paths without getting in each other's way. Yet many Swiss floors are designed backwards, placing the desks first and then hunting for room to hold meetings. The bill is paid every day in lost concentration and rooms that are never free.

Start from how people work, not from furniture

A good project begins with a needs analysis, not a desk plan. You measure how many people will actually use the space, at what attendance rate, and how they work: focused solo work, frequent calls, teamwork, client reception. Those answers set the area, the mix of spaces and the level of equipment long before a chair is chosen.

Remote work has changed the picture. Many companies no longer need a fixed desk per employee but a range of places: focus seats, closed rooms for calls, project areas, informal zones. Sizing around the people present on an average Tuesday, rather than the sum of all contracts, avoids renting and heating empty square metres.

How many people, how many square metres

Switzerland sets no legal minimum area per workstation, but practice and ergonomics guidance converge on stable orders of magnitude. A screen workstation alone takes about 5 to 6 m² of net area. Add circulation, meeting rooms, technical rooms and shared zones, and you usually reach 8 to 12 m² per person in open-plan, more in cellular offices.

• Count the headcount present at the same time, not just the signed contracts
• Plan a realistic ratio of meeting seats (one meeting seat per two to three workstations)
• Add service areas: kitchen, lockers, archive, technical rooms
• Keep a two to three year growth margin in the calculation

Area per workstation benchmark

These ranges are for sizing a floor at the early stage. They include the share of common areas allocated to each workstation; the final figure depends on the building geometry, the target density and the comfort level sought.

Open-plan, cellular or flex: what to choose

No layout is good in the absolute; each solves one problem and creates another. Open-plan encourages exchange and floor efficiency but concentrates noise. Cellular offices protect focus and confidentiality at the cost of square metres and flexibility. The flex model, where you pick the space to suit the task, reduces fixed area but demands organisational discipline and solid digital infrastructure.

Acoustics, meetings and ergonomics: daily comfort

The top source of dissatisfaction in open offices is noise. It is handled with absorbent materials on ceiling and floor, with partitions and closed call booths, and with a layout that keeps quiet zones away from busy ones. For meetings, several small rooms and booths beat a single large room booked all day: most gatherings involve two to four people.

• Acoustic treatment of the ceiling and defined quiet zones
• Closed booths for calls and video conferences, at least one per floor
• Height-adjustable desks and ergonomic chairs (SUVA recommendations)
• Sufficient, glare-free lighting and a share of daylight
• Controlled ventilation and temperature, compliant with current HVAC standards

A successful floor is not judged on photos, but on the fact that you can always find a free room and a quiet spot to concentrate.

The five phases of a fit-out project

A controlled fit-out follows a clear progression, from need to site. Each phase confirms decisions before committing irreversible costs, which limits surprises at the end of the process.

Cost of a company office fit-out

Fit-out cost is reasoned per square metre. In Switzerland a light refresh stays moderate, a full fit-out to a common standard usually sits in a middle band, and a high-end project, or one in tight markets like Zurich and Geneva, can clearly exceed these values. These orders of magnitude exclude heavy furniture and IT and vary with the initial state of the premises.

On top of the works come interior-architecture and space-planning fees, often in the order of 15 to 22 % of the works amount, or billed between 120 and 300 CHF/h; the SIA scale has not been binding since 2020 and serves as a reference. Finally, plan a reserve of 10 to 20 % for the unexpected, common as soon as you open existing partitions or suspended ceilings.

The mistakes that cost dearly

Three mistakes recur: sizing on total headcount rather than real attendance, underestimating acoustics on large floors, and neglecting closed rooms. A project framed cleanly upfront, with an honest area programme and phases respected, costs less than a floor that has to be corrected six months after move-in.