With regard to new buildings, a few fundamental factors must be observed when drawing up plans.

Although in theory, access flooring can be used in any environment, there are some special areas such as bathrooms, landings and stairs where, for obvious reasons, it would be best to use traditional hard flooring. The design of the different levels must take into account the fact that rigid flooring areas are higher than access flooring areas, and that once the latter has been installed, the two must be joined without using ramps or steps. Obviously the same must also apply to windows. Plant engineering will be considerably simplified; planners only have to worry about designing riser areas for electricity, water, air, gas, etc. The distribution of these services around the floor is an extremely easy and economical operation as there are no longer any limitations imposed by detailed plans of the various building areas.

Laying cables and pipes is simple and does not add to the basic costs since plant areas are accessible at any time for modifications, additions and extensions to systems. This method means there are no design or installation problems for new systems developed in the foreseeable future. Experience has proved that it is practically impossible to predict the systems of the future given the pace of technological development and work organisation. There is no longer any need to pre-establish sub-divisions or future purposes of different building areas with all the planning problems this entails. Experience has proved traditional planning to be so rigid and inflexible that consequently it is difficult to implement the changes which inevitably arise between the planning, completion and installation stages. This invariably means that any changes or improvements made are often unsatisfactory and unproductive for the user and are always expensive, both financially and in terms of time.

Prefabricated partition walls and access flooring are an ideal combination when considering space management. Architects can therefore design plans and continue working until the building work has been completed, without knowing the interior layout of the environment, or if they so choose, ignoring its future purpose.

These are the obvious advantages to be gained from using access flooring for buildings destined for multi-purpose commercial use.