Resources
Space management
Space management is the modelling, allocation and evaluation of usable floor space: locations, floors, areas, capacities and the rules for using them.
In short
Space management is the modelling, allocation and evaluation of usable floor space in an organization. It defines which locations, floors, areas and resources exist, how large their capacity is, who may use them under which rules, and how heavily they are actually used. Its purpose is to match the space an organization pays for with the space it needs.
The three tasks
Space management consists of three recurring tasks. Modelling: representing the building as locations, floors, areas and bookable resources. Allocation: deciding which teams and which purposes each area serves, and enforcing that through rules and quotas. Evaluation: measuring how much of the modelled capacity is actually used.
Only the third task produces the number that space decisions require, and it is only reliable when the first two are maintained.
Relationship to desk booking
Desk booking is the daily transaction on top of the model; space management is the model. An organization can book desks without managing space – it will simply have no answer when asked how much space it needs. It cannot manage space without a model of the building.
Typical figures
The most common metrics are capacity per area, the desk sharing ratio, peak simultaneous occupancy and the share of permanently unused areas. Rent per square metre turns each of these into a monetary figure, which is usually the point at which the conversation moves from facility management to finance.
From the definition to your own offices
Terminology is where an evaluation starts, not where it ends. Thirty minutes with the product open turns the concept into your floor plan.