Understanding Office Layouts: A Guide For UK Business

The right office layout helps people work well together and on their own. The wrong one leaves teams distracted, cramped or cut off from each other.

This guide explains the most common office layouts, the factors to weigh up before you choose, and the UK rules to plan around. By the end, you'll know how to choose the layout that suits your business, your team and your space.

Quick answer: most small UK offices end up with a mix. That usually means open desks for everyday work, plus one or two enclosed rooms for calls, meetings and confidential talks. Plan for your busiest day, not an average one, and check the legal space-per-person minimum before you buy any furniture.

What is an Office Layout?

An office layout is the physical layout of an office: how the furniture, workstations and other elements are arranged in the space. It decides how the office is organised and how people move around and use it. Your choice of layout affects the atmosphere, the workflow and, in the end, how well the business runs.

A layout has two parts. The fixed part is the walls, rooms, doors and service routes, such as power, data, lighting and ventilation. The movable part is the furniture: desks, chairs, storage and screens. Rearranging desks is usually far easier and cheaper than moving walls or rerouting services, so it pays to get the fixed part right first.

Factors Influencing Office Layout

Before you look at specific layouts, consider what will shape your decision. Here are the key factors to keep in mind:

• Company culture and values. Your office layout should reflect your company's culture and values. If collaboration and teamwork are highly valued, an open and flexible layout may suit you best.
• Employee needs and preferences. Understand what your employees need. Some thrive in open spaces with plenty of social interaction, while others need quiet, private areas for focused work.
• Space and budget constraints. Consider the space you have and your budget. Smaller spaces may call for more compact layouts, while larger budgets can allow roomier designs.
• Functional requirements. Think about the specific jobs and departments in your organisation. Different departments may need different things, such as meeting rooms, collaborative spaces or private offices.

Common Office Layout Options

Now that we've covered the factors that influence your choice, here are the most common office layouts in the UK.

Open Plan Layout

The open plan layout is one of the most popular choices in modern offices. It has a spacious, unpartitioned area with desks or workstations arranged in rows or clusters. This layout encourages collaboration, communication and a sense of community among employees. Our guide to creating an open concept office goes into more detail.

Pros:

• Promotes teamwork and creativity.
• Maximises natural light and space.
• Cost-effective, as it makes the most of the space.

Cons:

• Noise levels can be a distraction.
• Limited privacy for employees.
• May not suit all types of work.

Benching and Low-Partition Layout

Benching is a type of open plan. People sit along shared runs of desk, often back to back, on one frame. Low screens between the desks are optional. It suits project teams who talk all day and don't need much storage at their desk.

Pros:

• Fits a lot of people into the floor.
• Makes quick conversations easy.
• Shared frames keep cabling tidy.

Cons:

• Little acoustic privacy.
• Little personal storage.
• Close neighbours can be distracting for focused work.

Team Cluster Layout

A cluster groups four to eight desks for colleagues who work together, with gaps or storage between the groups. Each team has its own patch, but the floor stays open. It suits offices with several small teams, such as sales, accounts and customer service.

Pros:

• Easy for a team to coordinate.
• Groups can be reshuffled when teams change.
• Gives each team a sense of its own space.

Cons:

• A lively team can disturb the next cluster.
• Teams can feel separated from other departments.

Cubicle Layout

The cubicle layout divides the office into individual workspaces using partitions or cubicles. Each employee has their own area, which gives a degree of privacy while still allowing for communication and collaboration. Our guide to creating a cubicle office layout explains how to set one up.

In the UK, this is usually called a screened workstation layout. The screens can be desk-mounted or free-standing. Our desk screens and desk dividers are a good place to start. Taller screens cut noise and visual distraction, but they block daylight and sight lines. Low screens keep the room feeling open and light, but give less privacy.

Pros:

• Offers privacy for employees.
• Reduces noise and distractions.
• Allows for personalisation of workspace.

Cons:

• May create a sense of isolation.
• Limited space for collaboration.
• Can be seen as dated in modern office design.

Private Offices

Here, a few enclosed rooms sit within an otherwise open floor. They usually go to roles that handle confidential calls or meetings, such as HR, a director or a finance lead. They can double as meeting rooms when the occupant is out.

Pros:

• Quiet for focused work.
• Private conversations stay private.

Cons:

• Each room takes more floor space per person.
• Walls, doors and services add to the fit-out budget.

Traditional Office Layout

A traditional office layout puts people in rooms rather than on an open floor. It comes in two common forms:

• Managers' offices around shared desks. Enclosed offices line the edge, often along the windows, with open desks for everyone else in the middle.
• Cellular offices. Most of the floor is divided into individual or small shared rooms off a corridor.

Traditional and cellular layouts are still common where work is confidential, such as legal and finance firms. Compared with open plan, they're quieter and more private. They usually fit fewer people into the same floor, though. Rooms also cut shared daylight, reduce casual contact between colleagues and are much harder to rearrange.

Pros:

• Privacy and confidentiality.
• Quiet for concentration.
• Clear personal space.

Cons:

• Higher fit-out cost per person.
• Less daylight reaches the inner rooms.
• Less informal collaboration.
• Hard to change as the business grows.

Hybrid Layout

The hybrid layout combines elements of open plan and cubicle layouts. It usually includes a mix of open workspaces, private offices and meeting rooms. The aim is a balance between collaboration and privacy.

Don't confuse a hybrid layout with hybrid working. A hybrid layout is a mix of open and enclosed space. Hybrid working means people split their week between the office and home. A hybrid-working team can use any layout, though hot-desking and activity-based layouts are common choices.

Pros:

• Offers flexibility to meet various needs.
• Encourages collaboration while maintaining privacy.
• Ideal for organisations with diverse work requirements.

Cons:

• Requires careful planning and design.
• Can be more expensive to implement, because each enclosed room adds partitions, a door and often changes to lighting and ventilation.
• May still face noise-related challenges.

Activity-Based Layout

An activity-based layout creates spaces for specific activities. It may include quiet zones for focused work, collaborative spaces for meetings and social areas for relaxation, such as breakout areas and meeting pods. The idea is to give people the right environment for each task.

Activity-based layouts suit teams whose tasks or attendance vary from day to day. Movable furniture and partitions let you adjust the shared areas as team sizes change. Make sure there are enough suitable places to work on the busiest day.

Pros:

• Boosts productivity by matching spaces to activities.
• Gives people a choice of settings for different tasks.
• Encourages better time management.

Cons:

• Requires a thorough understanding of employee needs.
• May need frequent reconfiguration.
• Can be space-intensive.

Hot-Desking Layout

Hot-desking means nobody has their own desk. People use whichever desk is free, or book one in advance. Activity-based working is different: people choose a type of setting to suit the task, such as a quiet booth or a project table. The two often go together, and both suit hybrid teams who aren't all in every day.

To make hot-desking work, provide:

• Booking. A simple desk-booking system, so people know they'll have somewhere to sit.
• Lockers. Personal storage, because nobody can leave things on a shared desk.
• Enough desks for the peak. Count the busiest day, not the average. Too few desks means shortages on the days everyone comes in.
• Call and meeting space. More people on video calls means more demand for booths and small rooms.
• Adjustable kit. Chairs and screens that each person can set up for themselves.

Shared desks still count under the screen-equipment rules. HSE says staff who hot-desk should carry out a basic risk assessment if they change desks regularly. See HSE's display screen equipment guidance.

Office Layouts Compared

This table compares the layouts on the same floor, starting from an open, empty space. Capacity and cost are relative to each other, not fixed figures. An existing building with rooms already built can change the picture.

Why do enclosed layouts cost more? Starting from a comparable open floor, open desks and benching need little building work. Each enclosed room can add partitions, a door and changes to lighting, ventilation and fire systems. Movable partitions and phased changes let you trial an arrangement before you commit to permanent work.

How to Arrange Office Desks

Once you've picked a layout, the desk arrangement, or office furniture configuration, decides how it works day to day. These are the common options:

• Rows and bench runs suit lots of similar workstations, such as a sales floor or a contact centre.
• Facing pairs suit two people who work closely together.
• Clusters or pods of four to eight suit collaborating teams.
• L-shaped and corner desks give one person extra work surface for paperwork or a second screen.

Where you point the desks matters as much as which desks you buy. HSE advises arranging the desk so the screen isn't directly facing windows or bright lights. It also suggests adjusting blinds to stop intrusive light (HSE's leaflet on working with display screen equipment). A screen side-on to the window is usually the easiest position. If reflections remain, move the desk or adjust the blinds.

Use the daylight you have. HSE's guidance on the Workplace Regulations says to position workstations to take advantage of natural daylight where possible. Where that causes too much heat or glare, move the workstation or shade the window.

Two more rules of thumb:

• Keep backs away from busy routes. Where you can, don't seat people with their backs right beside a main walkway or door.
• Keep walkways and escape routes clear. GOV.UK's guidance says your fire plan must show a clear passageway to all escape routes. Desks, bins and storage shouldn't creep into them.

Our guide to arranging office furniture has more ideas for putting it all together.

Creative Office Layout Ideas

Once you've chosen a basic layout, a few creative office space design ideas can make it work harder. These innovative office layouts suit most types of business.

Make Open Plan Work With Zones

Open-plan offices get criticised for noise and lack of privacy, but zoning solves much of that. Mix quiet areas with collaborative ones, so people can choose where to work for each task.

Borrow an idea from hotels: a lounge corner with sofas and small tables gives people somewhere to meet that isn't a meeting room. Sound-absorbing panels, privacy pods and soft furnishings help to create pockets of calm in a busy room.

Put the noisy things together and away from quiet desks. That means phones that ring a lot, printers, the kitchen and collaborative areas. Use acoustic screens around focus positions. Send long calls to a pod or booth: our guide explains what an office pod is and how they're used. Ordinary visual dividers won't stop a confidential conversation being overheard.

Use Plants and Daylight to Mark Zones

Plants make soft dividers. A row of planters can separate a breakout area from desks without blocking the view. Keep daylight paths open, so tall plants and storage don't sit in front of the windows.

Bigger ideas, such as a living wall or an indoor garden, need regular watering and maintenance, so budget for that. Our post on workplace wellbeing covers other ways to make the office a better place to be.

Give People Light They Can Adjust

One overhead lighting level rarely suits every task. Adjustable desk lamps let people add light for paperwork or turn it down for screen work. Position lamps so they don't reflect off the screen.

Set Up Meeting Spaces for Remote Colleagues

If some of your team work from home, shared meeting spaces need to include them. Equip the room with a camera, microphone, screen and a shared whiteboard. Position the camera so remote colleagues can see and hear everyone in the room. Provide separate booths for one-to-one video calls, so they don't tie up a meeting room.

Choose Furniture That Moves

Modular furniture lets you change the layout as your needs change. Desks that adjust to standing height and seating with storage built in give you more from each piece. Lightweight, movable partitions create privacy without the cost and permanence of fixed walls.

Change in Phases, Not All at Once

Reworking an office layout doesn't have to be costly or disruptive. Change it in phases to spread the cost and keep downtime low. Start with the areas everyone uses, such as communal zones or meeting rooms.

A few plants and some repositioned furniture make a relatively low-cost first phase. Ask staff which changes matter most to them before you move on to the rest. A creative office workspace works best when the people using it have helped shape it.

Guidelines for Choosing the Right Office Layout

Good office planning and layout start with careful thought about how your UK business works. Here are some guidelines to help you make an informed decision:

• Conduct employee surveys. Ask your employees about their preferences and needs. This helps you shape the layout around the way they work.
• Prioritise flexibility. Businesses change. Choose a layout that can adapt to new needs and growth without a complete overhaul.
• Consider technology integration. Make sure the layout allows for modern technology needs, such as power outlets, data connections and ergonomic furniture.
• Balance collaboration and privacy. Combine open spaces for teamwork with private areas where people can focus when they need to.
• Invest in ergonomics. Choose ergonomic furniture and design for comfort. Comfortable people can concentrate on their work.

Plan Your Office Layout in Five Steps

Designing an office layout is easier in a set order. Work through these steps before you order any furniture.

1. Measure the floor. Draw it to scale and mark the doors, windows, columns, radiators, sockets, data points and any other fixed services.
2. Count people and rooms. Count attendance on your busiest day, then add expected growth. Record which desks and rooms are used at busy and quiet times for a couple of weeks. A manual count works; occupancy sensors are another option. Use what you find to decide how many desks, meeting rooms and booths you really need.
3. Group the teams. Ask staff which teams need to sit together. Keep noisy activities, such as phones, printers and kitchens, away from focused work.
4. Draw two or three options. Sketch alternative plans using the actual dimensions of the furniture you're considering, not rough boxes.
5. Check each plan. Make sure chairs can push back without hitting anything and people can move around easily. Escape routes must stay clear, and every desk needs to reach power and data. Then check space per person against the rules below.

Stay Compliant with UK Workplace Regulations

Check the rules before you finalise a layout. In the UK, four areas are worth checking.

• Space per person. The Approved Code of Practice for the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 says each person should normally have at least 11 cubic metres of space. Divide the room's volume by the number of people who work in it, counting any ceiling height above 3 metres as 3 metres. The HSE's guide to the Workplace Regulations (L24) has the detail.
• Screen workstations. Under the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992, employers must assess the workstations of staff who use screens daily for an hour or more at a time. The HSE's display screen equipment guidance explains how.
• Lighting. Every workplace must have suitable and sufficient lighting. As far as is reasonably practicable, that lighting must be natural light (regulation 8 of the Workplace Regulations). In practice, arrange desks to use the daylight you have while controlling glare and heat.
• Fire safety. Keep escape routes and fire exits clear, and review your fire risk assessment when the layout changes. The government's guide to fire safety in the workplace sets out your responsibilities.

How the 11 Cubic Metre Rule Works

HSE's guidance on room space adds some useful detail on the 11 cubic metre figure:

• Use the empty room. Work it out from the total volume of the room when empty, divided by the number of people normally working in it.
• It's a minimum. HSE says the figure may be insufficient if, for example, much of the room is taken up by furniture.
• Floor area guide. With a 2.4-metre ceiling, 11 cubic metres needs about 4.6 square metres of floor per person. With a ceiling of 3 metres or more, it's about 3.7 square metres. HSE gives these as rough illustrations only.
• Meeting rooms are different. The 11 cubic metre figure doesn't apply to rooms used for meetings, lectures and similar purposes.

For example, a room 10 metres by 8 metres with a 2.5-metre ceiling has a volume of 200 cubic metres. At 11 cubic metres each, that's no more than 18 people. The 11 cubic metres is the minimum per person, so 18 is this room's upper limit, not a target. Desks, storage, walkways and the work itself may mean fewer. Our guides to how many desks you can fit in your office and how much space to leave between desks help with the practical numbers.

These HSE rules apply in Great Britain. Northern Ireland has its own Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993. The GOV.UK fire safety guide covers England and Wales, and it points to separate rules for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Choosing the Best Office Layout for Your Business

The best office layout depends on the work your team does and how often they're in. Use this as a starting point:

• Frequent teamwork: open desks or team clusters, with separate quiet space for focused work.
• Concentrated screen or phone work: quiet, screened desks.
• Confidential conversations: enclosed rooms or private offices.
• Attendance that varies: shared desks or an activity-based layout, sized for the busiest day.
• A mix of all of these: start with open desks plus enclosed meeting and focus rooms, then adjust once you see how they're used.

Your choice of office layout affects productivity, employee satisfaction and the overall success of your business. There's no single best office layout for everyone. Weigh up your company culture, your employees' needs and the space you have, then choose the layout, or mix of layouts, that fits your goals.

When you're ready to furnish it, browse our office desks, bench desks and meeting room furniture.