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Required Building Space per Person

Room area per person - may be used to calculate typical indoor climate loads.

The table below can be used as a guide to required area (square metre or square feet) per person inside some typical buildings and rooms. The values can be used to calculate human sensible and latent heat load.

Required Building Space per Person
Type of BuildingType of RoomArea per Person
(m2)(ft2)
Apartments 100 - 400
Assembly building Lecture room 0.6
Library 5
Cinema 0.6
Concert hall 0.6
Theater 0.6
Banks 50 - 150
Bars 15 - 50
Cafeterias 10 - 50
Churches 5 - 20
Clubhouses 15 - 50
Cocktail Lounges 15 - 50
Computer Rooms 80 - 150
Court Houses 50 - 150
Dental Centers Clinic and Offices 50 - 150
Department Stores 15 - 75
Dining Halls 10 - 50
Drug Store 15 - 50
Factories Assembly hall 2 - 5
Factories Light manufacturing 10 - 20
Factories Heavy manufacturing 20 - 30
Fire Stations 100 - 500
Hotels Rooms 5
Lobby 0.6
Assembly room 1.5
Hospitals General Areas 50 - 150
Patient Rooms 80 - 150
Kindergarten 2 - 3
Kitchens 50 - 150
Libraries 30 - 100
Luncheonettes 10 - 50
Lunch Rooms 10 - 50
Malls 50 - 100
Medical Centers Clinic and Offices 50 - 150
Motels, Dormitories Public Spaces 100 - 200
Guest Rooms, Dormitories 100 - 200
Municipal Buildings 50 - 150
Museums 30 - 100
Nightclubs 15 - 50
Nursing Home Patient Rooms 80 - 150
Offices Single office 10
Meeting room 1.5
Police Stations 100 - 500
Post Offices 100 - 500
Precision Manufacturing 100 - 300
Residential 200 - 600
Restaurant With service 1.5
Without service 1
Retail Stores 15 - 75
Schools Lecture rooms 0.6
Class rooms 2
Corridors 2
Laboratory 3
Shops Retail 2
Supermarkets 2
Sports Gymnasium 1.5
Swimming pools 4
Supermarkets 50 - 100
Taverns 15 - 50
Town Halls 50 - 150
  • 1 m2 = 10.764 ft2
  • 1 ft2 = 0.0929 m2

Note! - be aware of local restrictions, codes and their minimum values. They may diverge considerably from the numbers above.

Occupancy Rate

Occupancy Rate is maximum numbers of persons per area unit. 

If the minimum area per person is 100 sq ft - the occupation rate is 1/100 = 0.01 person per sq.ft - or 10 persons per 1000 sq.ft.

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