Renovating offices in Paris: the design & build guide.

What sets an office project apart from a home renovation.

Technically, the trades are the same: strip-out, partitions, electrical, ventilation, surfaces, paint. What changes is the decision-making frame. In an apartment, the client arbitrates for themselves and the handover date is a matter of comfort. On an office floor, that date is a contractual commitment to a landlord, to staff, sometimes to customers — and delay is paid for in double rent, in teams with nowhere to sit, or in a missed opening.

Three differences shape everything else:

• The schedule constraint comes from outside the project — lease expiry, notice period, move-in date: the programme does not bend to the site, the site bends to the programme.
• The brief comes before the plans — how many workstations, what share of collaborative space, what flex-office policy: these organisational decisions drive the square metres, not the other way round.
• Regulation enters early — accessibility, fire safety, public-access classification if the premises receive visitors: these are inputs to the design, not late adjustments to it.

The six stages, from brief to move-in.

A well-run office project always follows the same sequence. The table below sets out that framework — the one we apply as a general contractor, with design and execution carried under a single contract:

The stage most often skipped is the first. A vague brief produces plans that move, plans that move produce a costing that slips, and a costing that slips produces a site that overruns. Time spent framing the uses upfront is never time lost on the schedule: it is time relocated to where it costs the least.

Working backwards: when should you start?

The right method is to start from the date that governs — lease expiry, move-in, opening — and work back. Allow 2 to 3 months of design (surveys, brief, plans, technical decisions and costing), then the works themselves. Our three most recent office projects give a clear benchmark: four months, whether the floor was 210, 270 or 380 m².

In other words, a Paris office project needs to be decided six to nine months before the target date. To that you must add, where applicable, the processing of a planning application if façades or floor areas are affected, the landlord's consent to the proposed works, and a safety commission review for certain premises receiving the public. These administrative timescales cannot be compressed: they can only be anticipated. The same sequencing logic, applied to residential work, is set out in our article on how long a Paris renovation really takes.

Observed budgets, per m².

In the Paris office market, the ranges match those of residential work — the building stock is the same, the requirements differ:

Three variables explain most of the spread within those ranges. The condition of the technical services first: a floor whose air conditioning, electrical installation and ventilation all need renewing moves straight into the bracket above. The acoustic ambition next, which decides the ceiling treatment, the meeting-room partitions and the separation between workstations. The share of custom millwork last — reception, counters, integrated storage — the line item where the gap between a catalogue standard and designed joinery is widest. For a detailed reading of these trade-offs, our office renovation in Paris page covers them item by item.

Occupied site or vacated floor: the trade-off.

This is the decision that shapes the project most, and it is taken early. Working on an occupied site avoids double rent and a temporary move, but it imposes phasing by zones with teams relocated in sequence, noisy or dusty work shifted to evenings, nights or weekends, protected and signposted circulation routes, and absolute continuity of critical networks — IT, servers, access control. The programme necessarily runs longer, and coordination with your internal teams becomes a full part of the management.

A vacated floor, conversely, allows all trades to work simultaneously and shortens the schedule appreciably, at the cost of housing the teams temporarily. The trade-off rests on three criteria: the cost of double rent over the period, the real tolerance of the business to disruption, and the margin left in the schedule before the deadline. There is no general right answer — there is an answer per company, and it can be calculated.

Compliance: what must be decided upfront.

As soon as premises receive the public — patients, customers, visitors — they fall under the French public-access regime, with its own obligations: accessibility (circulation routes, sanitary facilities, door widths), fire safety (escape routes, smoke extraction, alarms, rated materials), regulatory files and, depending on the category, a commission review. Handled at the end of the design, these requirements force redrawing; handled as design inputs, they blend into the scheme without constraining it.

Our reference here is a 210 m² medical office in the 11th arrondissement, brought up to ERP5 standards for receiving the public: eleven coordinated trades, four months on site, and compliance considered from the brief rather than retrofitted before opening.

The costliest mistakes in office projects.

• Drawing before settling the organisation — the number of workstations, the flex-office policy and the share of collaborative space determine the areas. Fixing them after the plans means redrawing the plans.
• Treating acoustics as a retrofit — on an open floor, noise is the first source of dissatisfaction. Every solution exists, but they are designed together with the ceilings and partitions, not after move-in.
• Forgetting the landlord — condition schedules, consent to works, reinstatement obligations at lease end: these clauses govern the scope, and are read before costing.
• Separating design from execution — when the designer commits to neither price nor programme, the gap between the scheme drawn and the scheme buildable emerges at the costing stage, which is to say too late. We set out what the model changes in general contractor or architect + trades.
• Neglecting commissioning — testing the installations, balancing the HVAC, operating documentation, staff briefing: a floor handed over is not a floor in use until those steps are closed.

What our recent office projects show.

Three recent operations sum up our practice in the Paris office market. The Dior offices: 380 m² fitted out in four months with fifteen trades, under a confidentiality agreement — we will say no more, and that is precisely the commitment made. The I.T. workplace: 270 m² designed and built in design & build, four months, twelve trades, with a complete rethink of how the floor is used — mobility, exchange, life at work. The medical office: 210 m² to ERP5 standards, eleven trades, four months.

Three very different programmes, one mechanism: a single point of contact, a committed budget, a date honoured — all covered by ten-year warranty insurance of €5,000,000 per project. The full set is in our portfolio.

Three frequent questions.

How far ahead of the deadline should the project start?

Six to nine months before the target date for a typical Paris floor: 2 to 3 months of design and costing, then the works — four months on each of our three most recent projects, from 210 to 380 m². Add the processing of any permissions and, where applicable, the safety commission review.

Do I need an architect as well as a general contractor?

It is not compulsory, and both set-ups work well: we work equally with our clients' own architects and with our in-house design teams. What matters is that someone commits to both the price and the programme — that is the general contractor's role.

How do I get an order of magnitude quickly?

Describe the floor to us — surface, condition of the technical services, ambition, target date — and we will come back to you within 48 hours with a first reading. For an immediate framing, request an estimate and we will set the range with you.

An office project is judged on one thing: your teams' ability to work normally on the Monday after handover. That is what we commit to holding — tell us about yours.