Flexible layouts: what tenants ask for today

Companies have become more cautious about planning headcount far ahead, and this shows in what they ask of an office. Tenants want not only space at a rate, but clarity on how they will change it: expand, contract, split between teams.

What makes a layout flexible

• A regular column grid and a minimum of load-bearing partitions inside the unit.
• The ability to split a floor into two or more independent units with separate entrances.
• Services designed for reconfiguration: zoned ventilation and power distribution.
• Washrooms and lift lobbies that serve several units at once.

For the owner, flexibility is not a concession to tenants but a vacancy management tool. A floor that can be divided fills faster than one that can only be let whole.

Building this in is cheapest at the design stage: separate service connections, planned positions for future partitions and reserve capacity. Later, the same changes require opening up structures and disrupting neighbouring units.