After you’ve made the decision to refurbish or relocate your practice, and ideally prepared a brief, space planning can begin. Planning the layout of your proposed surgeries can be a complicated procedure, although it will be much easier if you’ve already prepared a brief for your designer or for yourself.
You will need to address your spatial priorities, possible traffic and spatial balance in your practice. If you’re moving to a new location, you may have already had to list your priorities to find enough space for your needs, an ideal location, and a reasonable price.
You will have to look more closely at your priorities during the space planning stage of the project to specify exactly the essential and optional areas in your brief. The size of your premises and your budget are the two main determining factors in the design of your dental surgeries.
The brief you’ve previously developed should be seen as a wish list; an ideal that may have to be changed or compromised to fit your available floor space and your financial constraints.
Other constraints on your floor space and layout may be fixed structures such as columns and walls, existing windows and established entrances to the space. In some cases, commercial leases are taken in buildings where there is unlimited space available for the planned surgeries.
However, every square metre used costs money, and therefore an efficient use of space is always cheaper. Another issue is the importance of visibility versus issues of privacy.
Surgeries prioritising visibility through ground floor tenancies, windows and glass, have the advantage of attracting new customers and exhibiting an open and honest practice.
However, privacy is often a concern for patients while being treated and for staff on a break. Many dental surgeries are now being fitted out in street-front retail space, where these privacy issues are inevitably raised.
