How many m² per desk?
Three layouts, three benchmarks. An individual, partitioned office is sized on 10 m² per person. An ordinary shared office, where several desks share one room without heavy noise constraints, rises to 11 m². An open space with frequent calls or exchanges needs 15 m²: ambient noise demands more distance between desks, not just more room for furniture.
These figures come from the NF X 35-102 standard and the INRS ED 807 sheet, the references design offices and fit-out contractors use to size a project before drawing the first desk.
An additional requirement: air volume
The INRS does not only set a floor area: it also asks for at least 10 m³ of air per person, and 4 m² of freely accessible floor per desk once furniture and storage are removed. An office that meets 10 m² on paper can still fall short if much of the room is taken up by tall units or storage.
That free-floor figure, more than the raw square metreage, is what decides whether a desk feels cramped once the furniture is in.
What French labour law requires
French labour law (Code du travail) sets no minimum floor area per desk. It sets general obligations instead: adequate ventilation, suitable natural or artificial lighting, fire safety, and reasonable acoustic comfort. The 10, 11 and 15 m² figures are not a law an inspection would check, but the professional reference that keeps a project from being undersized.
An office that only serves its own employees falls under this framework, not the ERP rules (public-access building regulations) reserved for premises open to outside customers. A reception area or showroom attached to the office can fall under ERP rules instead: that space, not the office itself, then has to comply.
