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Office space planning and management toolkit

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  E N Q U I R I E S

Dirk Conradie
CSIR Building & Construction Technology
Tel: +27 12 841-2551

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JULY 2005 ISSUE

CSIR


Office space planning and management toolkit Print friendly version

The Department of Public Works (DPW) has appointed the CSIR to develop new office space planning and management guidelines for the department's large and diverse estate. The existing state office building space and cost norms have become outdated and inadequate for the requirements of modern office design. With sustainable design and the appropriate use of technology becoming increasingly important, the department and its client departments need to provide optimum and cost efficient work environments, fully aligned to the needs of the occupier. In line with international best practice, the revised norms for offices should be functionally based, rather than being based on the seniority of the occupant.

In an attempt to make the project as holistic as possible, the CSIR has developed a broad policy framework for the provision and management of offices, as well as a specific research toolkit. This toolkit can also support decision-making during planning, design and operation of the facility.

Approach

In order to support normalized comparison, two classification systems had to be created. The first is an occupational classification system which forms the basis of the various functions that specific people or professions perform. The second is a set of hierarchical space classification categories typically found in offices.

Toolkit design

The primary objectives of the toolkit are to provide:

  • An interactive electronic tool for developing a space plan for a new office building or upgrading project.

  • A tool for analysing and assessing existing and new projects.

  • An interactive tool for developing office space norms and for reviewing and modifying the norms over time.

  • A repository for case studies on government office projects, and

  • A high-level benchmarking system for tracking relative performance of existing government office buildings.

The software system developed is called ESPACE to indicate the electronic or digital nature of the system. A number of the inherent system capabilities are listed below:

  • An occupational classification system of 476 entities in nine main categories.

  • A hierarchical, functional-based spatial classification system that currently contains 111 entries.

  • The prototype uses Microsoft Visio as a front-end to analyse existing case studies. Once all the spaces have been analyzed the object-based information is extracted and analyzed in Microsoft Access.

  • A new parametric interpretive space planning language consisting of 10 high level space related functions and 17 general programming functions and operators to facilitate the definition of any norm at any spatial hierarchical level was developed.

  • The system makes it possible to have any number of norms sets.

  • Provision has been made to accommodate rule and case-based norms implementation. Preference has been given to the rule-based approach, where explicit m² areas per function are allocated a priori.

Benefits

Direct benefits of the new approach include the following:

  • The system is not CAD dependent and background drawings can be accepted in a range of formats.
  • The various aspects of the solution are extensible and generic.
  • The ESPACE space planning programming language makes it possible to perform any type of spatial analysis at various levels of specificity.
  • The toolkit effectively replaces static, printed norms.

Download the following document in pdf format:
Complete article: Office space planning and management toolkit [File size 109KB]

Related links:

  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Visio

    Meet the team:

    Dirk Conradie

    Liteboho Mphutlane

    Siyanga Sowazi

    Enquiries:
    Dirk Conradie
    CSIR Building and Construction Technology
    Tel: +27 12 841-2551
    Fax: +27 12 841-3504
    Email: dconradi@csir.co.za

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