Restacking the workplace for a workforce transformation

If your floor plan still reflects a workforce that no longer exists, you already know the symptoms. Empty desks sit next to overflowing conference rooms, one department is split across two floors, and a lease renewal forces the question you’ve been putting off. Restacking the workplace is one of the best options for companies looking to optimize space in their office. It’s no longer a crisis response; it’s a required strategic capability for continuous optimization.

Restacking is the strategic process of reconfiguring the office’s usage to improve utilization and align the footprint with current business needs. Done well, it belongs inside a broader workplace experience software strategy rather than a one-off construction project.

You don’t have to choose between a full relocation and living with a floor plan that no longer fits. This article covers why restacking is now a recurring need, the financial case for it, and how OfficeSpace’s AI space planning makes the process data-driven.

What is workplace restacking?

Workplace restacking is the strategic reconfiguration of your existing office space. The goal is to align how that space is used with your business goals and the realities of a hybrid workforce. It turns an outdated, costly asset into space that earns its keep.

What is the purpose of restacking the workplace?

An office restack is about rearranging and reshaping your physical space to meet the needs of your organization and your workers. The core purpose is optimization rather than downsizing. Specifically:

• Improving space utilization: Ensuring every square foot is used efficiently, often by transitioning from assigned desks to flexible seating models.
• Driving operational efficiency: Consolidating space requirements to reduce overall real estate costs and make the building more cost-effective.
• Enhancing agility: Reinventing the floor plan to allow for different work environment types, such as more collaboration zones or focus pods, adapting to dynamic team needs.

Smart restacking starts with smart space planning, including real-time headcount planning. Rich data is what lets teams make better decisions about space optimization.

Why restacking is a 2026 priority

Global office utilization reached 56% in 2026, up from 54% in 2025 and 49% in 2024. That figure comes from the Global Occupancy Planning Benchmark Report 2026, a JLL study by Wei Xie and Maddie Holmes. Organizations are setting structured in-office requirements and closing the gap between the space they lease and the space their people use.

The same report found that 62% of organizations now require a fixed number of in-office days, up from 49% the year before. The share of employees attending three to four days a week jumped from 36% to 55% in a single year.

A floor plan sized for 2022 attendance patterns is now carrying a workforce that shows up far more often, and in far less predictable clusters. Restacking is how facilities and real estate leaders close that gap without waiting for a lease to force the decision.

Cost is the other half of the equation. JLL’s Stay, renovate or relocate? guide puts a medium-quality corporate office fit-out at $295 per square foot. Total fit-out costs are up 3% to 10% year over year through mid-2026, driven largely by labor, metals, and mechanical systems. Restacking is typically far less disruptive than a full relocation because it reuses existing offices, meeting rooms, and infrastructure.

Daniel Pomfrett, Americas Cost Management Lead at JLL, frames it this way: “The earlier you can bring in a cost manager to your capital planning, the greater the opportunity they have to improve your cost efficiency and capture savings.” That advice applies to a restack as much as to a full build-out.

In 2025, inventory removals outpaced new office completions for the first time since CBRE began tracking the market in 1988. That finding comes from the 2026 CBRE report, U.S. Real Estate Market Outlook 2026: Office. The same report puts downtown leasing at 40% of all activity in 2025, up from 30% across 2020 through 2024, even though downtown holds 35% of inventory.

Quality space is getting scarcer and more expensive to build from scratch, which makes restacking the space you already hold an increasingly economical first move.

What are the benefits of restacking an office?

A restack pays off in proportion to the data behind it. Built on real occupancy numbers, it delivers on several fronts at once:

• Reducing departmental fragmentation, especially between floors
• Reducing space needs, which can often lead to a reduction in both real estate costs and an organization’s carbon footprint
• Preparing the office for growth and projected staffing numbers
• Improving teamwork by seating people near the colleagues they actually work with, even in flexible seating scenarios
• Simplifying move management and request management

Ultimately, the goal when restacking the workplace is to better align the office with how employees are actually using it. This improves workflow along with employee well-being, allowing for more collaboration in the workplace.

Recent surveys show that most workers want some form of hybrid office. Restacking to better accommodate flexible working helps companies adapt to that expectation instead of fighting it.

How Rapid7 relocated more than 600 employees

Planning alone doesn’t prove agility. Execution does, and global cybersecurity leader Rapid7 put that to the test when it moved its headquarters.

• The challenge: Rapid7 needed a smooth transition when relocating 600 employees to a new headquarters. The logistics required careful planning, high accuracy, and fast alignment among department heads to avoid disruption.
• The agile solution: Rapid7 used OfficeSpace’s stacking and scenario solutions to plan and execute the move. They built multiple virtual seating assignments in Scenarios as the plans evolved, ensuring buy-in from team managers before touching a physical desk.
• The outcome: Pre-planning the move with data kept the merge simple, and Rapid7 relocated 600 employees in just two days.

The full Rapid7 case study shows what happens when space optimization technology meets a clear strategy.

“By the time the move happened, the Scenario was entirely filled out so the merging process was simple and painless,” said Andrea Diieso, Rapid7’s Workplace Experience Manager.

How AI helps with restacking offices

Achieving agility requires technology that can handle the volume and complexity of an entire portfolio. This is why AI space planning tools are essential. They provide the visual clarity and predictive power needed to reconfigure space with confidence.

Stack planning: The visual roadmap

AI stack plans optimize your floor plan so that it evolves with your needs, giving you a high-level picture of your entire workspace and departments. When powered by a tool such as OfficeSpace, stack plans integrate real-time occupancy data with your restack plans. That lets FMs drag and drop departments between floors and sites, reorganizing the portfolio before making any physical changes.

Scenario modeling: Testing before execution

Scenario modeling builds on the stack plan, giving executives something concrete to compare before they approve. When scenarios are used in conjunction with stacking, FMs can:

• Compare different versions: Instantly compare multiple proposed floor plans and test the long-term impact of changes, such as reducing headcount or consolidating floors, without affecting live data.
• Generate proposals: Convert stack planning data into multiple, tangible floor plan proposals for stakeholders to review.
• Implement confidently: Execute the chosen plan in just a few clicks using tools such as Scenario Merge, guaranteeing accuracy from concept to completion.

The biggest risk in any restack is committing to a plan before testing it against real occupancy data. Scenario modeling removes that risk.

Transform your portfolio with OfficeSpace

The OfficeSpace platform supports this entire process. It brings drag-and-drop stack planning together with scenario modeling in one place, so AI space planning happens where the floor plan lives. The result is an experience that’s fast, intuitive, and reliable.

FMs and company planners can generate plans, test them instantly, and export straight to execution. One platform covers the whole path from first plan to final move.

Frequently asked questions

Facilities and real estate leaders raise the same questions before signing off on a restack. The answers below cover cost, timeline, stakeholders, and where people work while the space is being rebuilt.

What does restacking the workplace actually involve?

Restacking is reorganizing how departments, teams, and desks are distributed across an office’s floors so that the space matches how people actually work today. Facilities teams use it to consolidate underused floors, regroup scattered departments, and prepare for a different attendance pattern, driven by occupancy data rather than guesswork.

What is the difference between restacking and relocating an office?

Relocating moves your organization into an entirely new building; restacking reorganizes the space you already occupy. A restack reuses existing offices and infrastructure, so it’s typically faster and less disruptive. Relocation fits better when a portfolio needs to consolidate locations or replace a building that no longer serves the business.

How long does an office restack typically take?

An office restack can take a few weeks for a single floor or several months for a multi-floor, multi-department project, depending on scope and construction needs. Scenario modeling that lets department heads approve layouts digitally before physical work begins tends to shorten the timeline, and phasing floors separately keeps schedules realistic.

What is a swing space during a restack?

A swing space is a temporary work area that keeps employees productive while their permanent space is reconfigured. Without one, a team must be split and shifted in stages, which usually means more off-hours work and a longer project. A comfortable, functional swing space protects both productivity and morale.

How much does restacking cost compared to relocating?

Restacking generally costs less than relocating, since it reuses existing infrastructure instead of a full build-out, a new lease negotiation, and end-of-lease obligations. JLL’s guide to fit-out costs puts a medium-quality corporate office at $295 per square foot, so reusing what already works directly controls project cost.

What are the signs a company needs to restack its office?

The clearest sign is a mismatch between how the office was designed and how it’s used. Departments are split across floors, meeting rooms are always booked while desks nearby sit empty, or headcount growth has outpaced the layout. Pending lease renewals and shifts to a structured hybrid schedule are common triggers, too.

Who should be involved in planning a workplace restack?

A workplace restack typically involves facilities and real estate leadership, IT, affected department heads, and often HR or workplace experience leaders representing employee needs. Department heads confirm team sizes and adjacencies before any desk moves, while early IT involvement protects business continuity during the technology cutover.

How does hybrid work affect office restacking decisions?

Hybrid work shifts the goal from simply fitting everyone in to building a layout that works whether attendance is 40% or 80% on a given day. That means more flexible seating, more collaboration space, and fewer permanently assigned desks, with occupancy data confirming the new layout matches real attendance patterns.

What happens to leftover furniture after a restack?

Furniture that no longer fits the new layout is typically recycled, donated, resold, or liquidated rather than discarded. Most restacks leave some pieces without a home in the new plan. Planning for that ahead of time avoids a last-minute scramble and keeps the project on budget.

Can restacking help reduce a company’s carbon footprint?

Restacking can meaningfully reduce a company’s carbon footprint when it results in a smaller footprint or better use of existing systems. Consolidating space cuts the energy needed to heat, cool, and light underused floors. Reusing infrastructure instead of building new also avoids the embodied carbon of new construction.

What role does data play in a successful restack?

Data determines whether a restack solves the right problem or just moves the same mismatch to a new floor plan. Occupancy and headcount figures show which departments are overcrowded, which are underused, and where teams have drifted from frequent collaborators. The new layout then reflects real work patterns.

The bottom line on restacking

Restacking works best as a planned, data-driven capability rather than a one-time reaction to a lease deadline or a downsizing decision.

Five principles hold across every restack that works:

• Data comes first. Every restack needs a baseline of how people actually use the office before anyone touches a floor plan.
• Scenario modeling lowers the risk. Department heads sign off on a layout before a single physical change happens.
• Cost favors reuse. Restacking existing space is typically less capital-intensive than a full relocation or ground-up build-out.
• Swing space protects continuity. A temporary work area keeps teams productive while their permanent space is being reconfigured.
• The payoff compounds. A well-executed restack improves collaboration, utilization, and employee experience at the same time.

OfficeSpace offers smart software that makes it easy to restack the workplace to embrace the workforce of the future. Request a demo with a workplace expert to see how AI-powered stack planning and scenario modeling can turn your next restack into a precise, data-backed decision.