Planning Space for Pipe Organs: Sizing Guidelines
Submitted by administrator on Tue, 08/19/2008 - 23:28
| General Guidelines for Pipe Organ Size for preliminary purposes only |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seating Capacity | Total Ranks | Number of Manuals | Space Requirements* | |||
| Vertical Layout | Horizontal Layout | |||||
| Floor Area ** | Height *** | Floor Area | Height *** | |||
| 100 | 3-10 | 1-2 | 8-10 ft2 per rank |
10'-13' | 8-10 ft2 per rank |
10'-13' |
| 150 | 5-13 | 1-2 | 13'-17' | 13'-17' | ||
| 200 | 11-16 | 2 | 6-8 ft2 per rank |
17'-21' | 6-8 ft2 per rank |
17'-21' |
| 250 | 14-20 | 2 | 17'-21' | 13'-17' | ||
| 300 | 18-24 | 2 | 17'-21' | 13'-17' | ||
| 350 | 22-29 | 2 | 17'-21' | 13'-17' | ||
| 400 | 26-35 | 2-3 | 3-6 ft2 per rank |
21'-25' | 5-8 ft2 per rank |
17'-25' |
| 450 | 30-42 | 3 | 21'-25' | 17'-25' | ||
| 500 | 34-50 | 3 | 21'-25' | 17'-25' | ||
| 600 | 39-57 | 3-4 | 21'-25' | 17'-25' | ||
| 700 | 46-64 | 3-4 | 21'-25' | 17'-25' | ||
| 800 | 50-71 | 3-4 | 21'-35' | 17'-25' | ||
| 900 | 57-78 | 3-4 | 21'-35' | 17'-25' | ||
| 1,000 | 65-86 | 4 | 21'-35' | 17'-25' | ||
* Pipes/windchests only; console and blower not included; includes access areas such as walkboards, and tuning aisle behind encased organs.
** Depth of footprint for pipes/windchests should be between 1/4 and 1/2 of the width for good tonal egress.
*** Assumes lowest windchest is 6'0" above floor.
Note: Actual space requirements depend on many things including: type of action, scales (diameters) of pipes, shape of space available, etc.
