Start with peak occupancy, not headcount
The desk ratio is the decision everything else depends on. Average attendance is misleading: most Paris offices fill up on Tuesdays and Thursdays and empty out on Fridays. Sizing on the average leaves people standing on peak days, which is the quickest way to lose the support of a works council and of the teams themselves.
We ask for four to six representative weeks of data: badge logs, booking-system exports or a simple sensor count. From the peak, we add a margin for visitors and project surges. A team with 60 % average attendance often lands at 66 to 70 desks for 100 people, but the figure must come from your data. Our guide on space per workstation explains the French NF X35-102 benchmarks behind the calculation.
Desks people do not own need to be better, not cheaper
When nobody owns a desk, every desk must suit everybody. That changes the specification. Height-adjustable desks become more useful because a 1.60 m and a 1.95 m colleague will sit at the same one. Chairs must adjust in seconds, without a manual: seat depth, lumbar support and armrests reachable from the seated position. We ask makers for EN 1335 documentation on every task chair we propose.
Cable management matters more than on assigned desks. A single docking cable, a power and USB point at the edge of the worktop and a tidy cable tray let anyone sit down and work in under a minute. Clean desks are a policy, but they also depend on furniture: if there is nowhere to put a bag, it ends up on the next desk.
Lockers, the piece that makes or breaks hot-desking
Lockers replace the pedestal under the desk. They need a place near the entrance or the team zone, one per person rather than one per desk, and a lock that suits your access system: key, code or badge. A locker bank is also a wall: it can screen a circulation route or separate a quiet zone from the café.
We check finishes and ventilation slots, the width for a laptop bag, and whether coats go in the locker or on a separate rail. These details sound small; they decide whether people bring a bag every day without complaining.
- one locker per person, sized for a laptop bag
- team zones so colleagues find each other without assigned seats
- a coat and umbrella point near the entrance
- a visible spot for shared stationery and headsets
Give the space back as rooms people need
The floor area saved on desks should not disappear. In most hybrid offices, it returns as focus rooms for one or two people, phone booths, small meeting rooms for four to six and a social area that works for lunch, a team meeting and an informal client visit. People come to the office to meet and to concentrate, and the furniture mix should reflect that.
We draw these zones on your actual plan and furnish each one with pieces suited to its use: an upholstered booth with good acoustic absorption, a high table for short stand-ups, lounge seating that still allows someone to open a laptop. Upholstery in shared areas is specified for contract use, with abrasion resistance and cleanability checked on the maker’s data sheet.
Typical cases
Typical case
A European subsidiary opening in Paris with 45 staff
- Situation
- The head office runs hot-desking at a 0.7 ratio and wants the Paris office aligned, but local teams expect a desk each.
- Our approach
- We would measure attendance during the first months in a temporary space, propose two scenarios (0.7 and 0.8) with the area each frees up, and furnish the extra rooms first so the policy is felt as a gain.
Typical case
A 120-person floor moving from assigned desks to shared ones
- Situation
- Existing desks are in good condition, pedestals are not, and nobody knows where personal items will go.
- Our approach
- Keep and re-plan the desks that still work, replace pedestals with lockers, add focus rooms in the space released, and organise the take-back of furniture you no longer need.
Typical case: a representative situation, not a completed project.
What drives the budget of a flex office
We quote line by line once the ratio and the zones are agreed. The budget moves mainly with the following items.
| Item | What drives it |
|---|---|
| Desks and task chairs | fixed or height-adjustable desks, chair adjustment range, quantity set by the ratio |
| Lockers and storage | number of people, locking system, finishes |
| Focus rooms and booths | freestanding booths or furnished rooms, acoustic performance, ventilation of booths |
| Meeting and social areas | number of rooms, video equipment integration, upholstery grade |
| Design, delivery and installation | size of the floor, access, phasing outside office hours |
No figure is given here without your plan: each line of the quote shows the piece, the maker, its origin and the lead time announced. Professional clients can also spread the cost through a finance lease over 24 to 60 months, subject to the finance partner’s approval.
How we work
- 01
Occupancy review
We read your attendance data, or help you collect it, and agree the peak to design for.
- 02
Ratio and zoning scenarios
Two or three layouts on your plan, with the number of desks, lockers, rooms and the area of each zone.
- 03
Furniture selection and samples
Desks, chairs, lockers and soft seating from European makers, with material samples and chair trials.
- 04
Line-by-line quote
Maker, origin, lead time and documentation for each line, ready for your purchasing team.
- 05
Delivery and installation
Phased if the floor is occupied, with installation by our partner installers and a final walkthrough.