What Determines Office Design Cost?

Is office design cost determined only by square meters?

No; even if two offices have the same square meters, one may be renovated with only paint and lighting while the other gets a custom-made reception unit, a sound-insulated meeting room and screen infrastructure — which moves the total cost to an entirely different point.

The office design cost is therefore not determined by a fixed figure per square meter, but by which items are included in the job; giving a budget before these items are clarified at the survey stage is misleading.

What are the main items that determine cost?

The table below shows why two different office renovations proceed on a different budget.

Items that determine office design cost

Item	Choice that lowers cost	Choice that raises cost
Reception / furniture	Ready-made system furniture	Custom-made (built to measure in a workshop)
Meeting room	Standard glass partition	Sound-insulated acoustic partition
Flooring	Carpet tile	Natural stone or custom parquet
Plumbing/electrical	Existing line is kept	Electrical and HVAC line is relocated

Does the office renovation permit process affect cost?

Indirectly, yes; work started without the plaza management's approval can be stopped, which leads to tearing out and redoing unfinished work and extra cost. This is why the approval process is factored into budget planning from the start.

The requirement to work at night or on weekends is also a cost item; some teams charge an extra fee for working outside business hours.

Is the budget clarified before or after the survey?

A sound budget is always clarified after the survey; a figure given before the survey is an estimate, not a commitment, because which items are included is not yet clear.

These items can also differ by district; we covered how office design differs in Çukurambar, Söğütözü and Ümitköy in a separate article.

The purpose of use is also an item; in an office that needs privacy, such as a law office, acoustic material is more expensive than standard material, but it is non-negotiable.

The work schedule is also an item; in a hybrid software office in a technopark, items such as shared desks and focus booths create a different budget distribution than a classic office.

Building type is also an item; in a factory administrative building in an industrial zone, items such as material durability and a transition zone create a different cost item than a classic office.

Umut GÜRLER is an interior architect and a graduate of Çankaya University Interior Architecture; he has worked since 2009 (more than 17 years) on villa, apartment, office and clinic interiors in Ankara, and his office is in Cepa Ofis Kule. The example in this article comes from an office project he has completed.