How to create an office design brief

An office fit out or refurbishment is an exciting opportunity to transform your workspace into something that better reflects your brand, supports employee wellbeing, and enhances productivity. But before any work begins, you need a clear and detailed office design brief to hand over to your supplier or contractor.

A well-prepared office design brief acts as the foundation for your project and will ensure that you and the team working on the project are always in sync regarding the next steps. It will also ensure your chosen fit-out company understands your requirements, aligns its proposals with your vision, and avoids costly mistakes or alterations.

One of the first things you will need to consider when planning any workplace improvement is the purpose of the project and what impact it should have on the business.

Understanding the motivation behind the project helps your company tailor their approach to deliver maximum value and ensure that everything involved is intentional.

Common reasons for an office refurbishment:

Following on from defining the purpose of the project, you can then use these findings to craft goals and targets to help your contractor plan ahead. For example, if you want to increase your office by a certain size, knowing these measurements or figures will help the refurbishment company in the space planning and furniture supply process.

Other goals might include increasing desk capacity, including break out or collaborative spaces, improving accessibility, adding wellness features, enhancing visitor experiences, reducing noise pollution, improving energy efficiency and improving the presence of natural light.

Your budget and timescale are the most important parts of any office refurbishment, as these directly impact the business and employees. This will also be one of the first things a contractor will ask you to ensure they can work around your requirements and plan ahead.

Discover more about planning your office fit out budget.

When outlining your budget and timescale, there are a number of factors to consider, including: design and planning fees, furniture and fixtures, IT infrastructure, permissions and compliance and VAT.

Your office should reflect your brand and support your company culture, so highlighting this to your contractor will help them to detect what fits the design and what doesn’t. For example, a creative agency might want open-plan spaces and collaborative hubs, while a legal firm may need more private offices and meeting rooms to cater for serious conversations.

Depending on your industry type and company operations, there might be specific rooms and facilities that are required day to day. For example, do you require a breakout area, meeting rooms, workstations, a reception room and sever rooms? Included in this will also be any requirements regarding accessibility and additional spaces which relate to any relevant rules and regulations.

This part of your brief should cover the nuts and bolts of the project and will ensure that your contractor is aware of the finer details and anything to avoid along the way. This might include:

Creating a detailed office design brief is one of the most important steps in any office fit out or refurbishment project. It sets the tone, defines expectations, and ensures everyone is on the same page.

If you’re looking for someone to speak to regarding your project, get in touch with the ACI team and we can discuss the next steps!