Workplace interiors

Ana Beatriz Coutinho

plans offices, clinics and studios one zone at a time.

Every floor gets zoned before it gets a single chair: where people focus, meet, make, rest and arrive. Then the finishes, the furniture and the builder follow the plan, not the other way around.

See the projects Book a survey
Studio Porto, Bonfim
Since 2016
Fitted so far 41 floors
This floor Focus 44% Meet 22% Make 6% Rest 16% Arrive 12%

In figures

The practice, to scale

Legend Figures to end of last year · not to scale
41 floors fitted out

Offices, clinics, studios and showrooms since 2016

38,400m² planned and zoned

From a 90 m² podcast studio to a 4,200 m² headquarters

1,120 desks placed

Every one on a zoned plan before a chair was chosen

14wks survey to move-in, on average

For a floor under 800 m²

9 clients on a second floor

Repeat work is the number I actually watch

0 floors reworked after move-in

The zoning does the arguing before the builder arrives

Projects

Floors, zoned and built

Recent fit-outs. The strip under each picture is that floor's zoning; the line under it says where, when, how big and what I did.

All projects

Zoning

Five zones, every floor

Before finishes, before furniture, before a builder is asked for a price, a floor is sorted into these five. The colors on this page are the same five.

A typical floor

01

Focus

35 to 45% of the floor

Where the actual work happens. Desks, booths and a library, kept away from the door and the kitchen so nobody works in a corridor.

DesksFocus boothsLibraryTreatment rooms
02

Meet

18 to 25%

Rooms that book, from a two-person huddle to a boardroom, placed near the entrance so visitors never cross the focus zone.

Meeting roomsHuddle roomsBoardroomPhone booths
03

Make

8 to 16%

Whatever the business physically produces - a model bench, a recording booth, a fitting table, a prep kitchen. It gets a door onto the corridor so it is seen.

WorkshopStudioBoothPrep kitchen
04

Rest

10 to 15%

The kitchen, one table long enough for everyone at once and a soft corner. The zone that gets cut first in a budget meeting and missed most a year later.

KitchenDiningLoungeTerrace
05

Arrive

6 to 10%

The door, the desk, the wait and the coats. Small, but it is the only zone every visitor sees, so it gets the red joinery.

LobbyReceptionWaitingLockers

Shares are of usable floor area. Circulation is drawn last and takes what is left, which is why it is never a zone.

Services

Four ways in

Every one is a cut of the same six stages. Pick how far you want me to take it, and stop where your own people can carry on.

Zoning study

Any floor, before the lease is signed

A measured survey and a zoned plan of the floor you are looking at, with the desk count it really holds. The cheapest way to find out a space is wrong, or right.

From $3,200

Survey Zoning Finishes Furniture Tender Site

Refresh

90 to 600 m², occupied

The floor you already have, re-zoned and re-finished around the people in it, phased over weekends so nobody works from home for a month.

From $9,500

Survey Zoning Finishes Furniture Tender Site

Full fit-out

150 to 2,000 m², shell or strip-out

Survey to move-in. Zoning, finishes and furniture drawn, tendered to three builders, and the site walked twice a week until the keys come back.

From $18,000

Survey Zoning Finishes Furniture Tender Site

Clinic and studio

80 to 800 m², licensed uses

Treatment rooms, recording booths and showrooms have rules an office does not. The full service plus the compliance drawings the licence asks for.

From $21,000

Survey Zoning Finishes Furniture Tender Site

The cells under each card are the six stages of a fit-out. Filled means it is in the price; the ladder further down says how the price is worked out.

Process

Six stages, six signatures

Every stage ends with you signing something, and after that it does not move. That is how the builder gets one set of drawings and you get one price.

01 1 wks

Survey

I measure the floor myself with a tape and a laser, photograph every wall and talk to the people who will sit on it.

Sign-off You The brief and the headcount
02 2 wks

Zoning

Two or three zoned plans, each with its desk count and its compromises, argued out in one room in one afternoon.

Sign-off You The plan and the desk count
03 2 wks

Finishes

Floors, walls, joinery and lighting chosen against samples laid on the actual floor, in its actual light.

Sign-off You The finishes schedule
04 2 wks

Furniture

Every chair, desk and booth specified and priced, with the lead times that will quietly set the move-in date.

Sign-off You The furniture order
05 3 wks

Tender

One set of drawings to three builders. I level the prices so you are comparing the same job three times.

Sign-off You and the builder The contract sum
06 6 wks

Site

Two walks a week, a snag list that closes rather than grows, and the furniture arriving the day the floor is cleaned.

Sign-off You Practical completion

Survey to keys, for a floor under 800 m²: 16 wks

Fees

A percentage of the build, stepping down

The bigger the floor, the lower the rate. Here is the ladder and one worked example, so nobody has to ask.

Under $100,000 Refreshes and small studios
12%
$100,000 to $300,000 Most floors under 600 m²
10%
$300,000 to $800,000 Full fit-outs
8.5%
Over $800,000 Headquarters and multi-floor
7%
Worked example A build of $180,000 falls in "$100,000 to $300,000" at 10%, so the fee is $18,000.

Fixed fees

  • Zoning study, any floor$3,200
  • Measured survey only$1,400
  • Extra site visit$380
  • Compliance drawings, clinics$2,600
  • Furniture-only specification$4,800

Fees in US dollars, before tax, on the final contract sum. Invoiced at each sign-off in the proportions the stages take. Furniture is bought at trade price and passed through at cost, with the invoices attached.

About

The brief, and my answer to it

Portrait
On site in Bonfim, week five.
The brief, every time
  • Fit more people in than the floor seems to hold, without anyone sitting in a corridor.
  • Give us rooms that book, a kitchen people use and a door that looks like us.
  • Come in on the date you said, at the price the builder signed.

I spent six years as the space planner at an office furniture dealer, drawing other people's floors around the chairs we sold. The plans were fine and the floors were wrong, because the zoning was done last, by whoever had the catalog open. Since 2016 I have done it first, on my own, for forty-one floors: offices, clinics, studios and shops across Portugal and northern Spain.

I measure every floor myself with a thirty-meter tape that was my father's, a surveyor, and a laser that was not. I zone before I choose a finish, I tender to three builders, and I walk the site twice a week until the keys come back. Nobody has had to redraw a floor of mine after moving in, and I would like to keep it that way.

Ana Beatriz Coutinho Porto, September 2026

References

Comments on the drawings

Miguel Tavares Miguel Tavares COO, Loomline Zoning review, v2 Resolved

We came in wanting 180 desks on a floor that holds 140 properly. The zoned plan showed us why in one drawing, and we took the 140. Nobody has asked for a hot desk since.

Ana The desk count is the only argument worth having early.
Dr. Inês Lopes Dr. Inês Lopes Founder, Clínica Alameda Finishes sign-off Resolved

Three clinics, three licences, and the compliance drawings went through first time on each. The red door is the thing patients mention.

Ana The red door is the Arrive zone doing its job.
Rui Carvalho Rui Carvalho Partner, Fábrica Norte Tender levelling Resolved

As architects we assumed we could plan our own studio. Ana measured it, moved the model bench under the stair and found us room for six more people.

Ana The stair was always the best-lit corner of that floor.
Sofia Mendes Sofia Mendes Head of Operations, Cais Cowork Site walk, week 5 Resolved

Two site walks a week, and the snag list got shorter every time instead of longer. We opened the day she said we would, in the month she said we would.

Ana That was a good builder as much as a good plan.

Clients

On the roster

Nine of these have come back for a second floor.

  • Loomline since 2019 Software, 140 people
  • Clínica Alameda since 2020 Dental, three sites
  • Fábrica Norte since 2017 Architecture practice
  • Cais Cowork since 2021 Co-working, two floors
  • Serra & Pinto since 2022 Law firm
  • Óptica Ribeira since 2023 Eyewear retail
  • Studio Baixa since 2024 Podcast network
  • Pão da Rua since 2025 Bakery, four shops

Questions

Before you write

We have not signed the lease yet. Is it too early?
It is the best time. A zoning study on a floor you are still considering tells you the desk count it really holds and whether the meeting rooms fit near the door. Two studies on two floors cost less than one wrong lease.
Do you work outside Porto?
Yes, across Portugal and northern Spain, and further for a floor over 800 square meters. The survey and the site walks are always in person; the rest happens by drawing and one call a week.
Can we stay in the office during the work?
For a refresh, usually yes, phased zone by zone over weekends. For a full fit-out with a strip-out, no, and I will say so at the survey rather than at week three.
Who chooses the builder?
You do, from three prices I have levelled so they cover the same drawings. I recommend, I do not appoint, and I do not take anything from the builder.
What do you need from us at the start?
A headcount for two years out, a floor plan if the landlord has one, and one person who can sign things. The rest I measure.
How is the fee paid?
At each sign-off, in the proportion that stage takes of the whole. The survey is free under 800 square meters; a zoning study is a fixed fee and is credited back if the job goes ahead.

Contact

Book a survey

The first step on every job is me walking the floor with a tape. Tell me where it is.