A free tool to read the real efficiency of an office space with the BOMA standard.
Start from the gross area and go down, level by level, to the net occupied area — the one the design is built on. See how much space is really usable and how much is taken up by walls, core, services and circulation. The objective measurement requires a survey to the standard; here is the guide to the BOMA method.
Break the space down, level by level
From the gross external area (GEA) to the net occupied area (NOA/NUA).
Reference percentages, to be tuned to the real case. The objective measurement requires a survey to the ANSI/BOMA Z65.1 standard: ARCHIlabs carries it out during analysis and cross-references it with the work profiles and the desk sharing ratio.
How the calculation works
The BOMA standard breaks the space down into a decreasing hierarchy: from the GEA (the gross external footprint) it progressively removes the perimeter walls, the core and common areas, the internal structures and floor toilets, and finally the main circulation. What remains is the NOA/NUA: the net occupied area, the only one on which it makes sense to size workstations, work settings and square metres.
The overall efficiency is the ratio between NOA/NUA and GEA: it tells how much of the building becomes workspace. Two premises with the same cadastral area can have very different efficiencies — which is why the comparison must be made on the net occupied area, not on the gross. The percentages here are for reference: the precise number requires the BOMA survey.
Want the real measurement of your premises?
During analysis we survey the space to the BOMA standard and cross-reference the data with the work profiles: that is how square metres become a project that works.