Unassigned Area | Architactile

One of the biggest gotchas in architectural projects for clients is being ill prepared for the difference between the net usable space (the space that they asked for) and the gross area of the final design. While Unassigned Area is an obvious and intuitive necessity for architects, it’s typically neither for all but the most experienced clients. Many architects try to account for Unassigned Area with a “planning factor” or similarly named value that is ultimately an expression of building efficiency. While this approach is a good start, it is often woefully inadequate at explaining to the customer why they will be expected to pay for a large chunk of space that isn’t accounted for in the program. This is a particularly challenging problem with necessarily low building efficiency projects such as schools, healthcare facilities and other public spaces.

To help alleviate this issue, Architactile Inception provides the ability to specify a default building efficiency for the project before any Use Groups are defined. The building efficiency is used to calculate an appropriate portion of unassigned area to be added to the project for each Use Group based on that Use Groups net assignable area. The budgetary cost of the Use Group is then based on the net assignable area plus the portion of the Unassigned Area attributed to that Use Group. This approach results in the same gross area and budgetary estimates one would get by applying a planning factor post programming, but it has the added benefit of accounting for both the Unassigned Area and its cost as the program is being developed. From the client’s perspective the cost of the Unassigned Area is distributed proportionally within the program so they never see a “30% Planning Factor” line at the bottom of the space requirements list.

Architactile Inception then goes a step further by providing a tool to create a sample distribution of Unassigned Area across six categories: circulation, mechanical, walls & structures, public toilets, janitorial closets and unassigned storage. This provides the architect with a way to quickly assess whether the building efficiency (i.e. planning factor) is adequate for the project, as well as way to communicate to the client why Unassigned Area is essential for the project and how it might be allocated.