A novel assessment of imposed floor loads in contemporary offices

Imposed floor loading directly influences structural material requirements for new buildings, and often determines the adaptation potential of existing ones, with important sustainability implications. However, the loads adopted in current design codes and practice are largely based on historical precedent, rather than evidence. This project aims to provide a robust statistical analysis of contemporary office loading, and introduces a novel methodology modelling both furniture and
occupancy based on fit-out drawings of modern offices. Using a Monte Carlo approach, a large dataset capturing a variety of office layouts, furniture specification and occupancy scenarios is created. The results characterise typical and extreme loading, revealing the importance of storage furniture, high occupancy events and acceptable return periods in determining an appropriate design load, and the critical influence of the loaded area size.