Plinth Area

It refers to the entire carpet area along with the thickness of the external walls of the apartment. It includes the thickness of the internal walls and the columns, if any, lying within the four walls of an apartment. The commercial space is not taken into account in calculating the plinth area. Plinth Area means the area of the building or the house including the thickness of the external walls. The measurement is taken between one end to the other end of the exterior wall. The Plinth area concept comes in picture when you are typically building your Bungalow or you have a plot area on which you are building your home. The plot area minus the total built area from wall to wall becomes the plinth area. That is from the outer end of one exterior wall to the outer end of the other external wall.

Carpet Area
As its name suggests, Carpet Area is the area where we can spread a carpet, means area calculated from inner wall to wall distance inside the house. This would also include steps if any, inside the house. So essentially, Carpet area is nothing but the net usable area inside the house. It is the actual usable area within the walls of the floor.The term `Carpet Area' refers to the total usable area within the four walls of an apartment or a commercial space, as the case may be.In other words, it refers to the area for which a carpet can be laid if required by the owners.

Builtup Area
The built-up area refers to the entire area of the floor including carpet area, walls, lobbies and corridors, atrium areas and basement. In Delhi, the lift areas and staircase areas are included in the built-up area. In Mumbai, the basement, staircase, lift, and utility rooms like generator and electricity rooms are also taken as built-up area. In Bangalore, the basement is not included in the built up area and in Chennai, the basement and atrium areas are excluded. As always, check with your builder/broker on what definition they are using.

Floor Area Ratio

Floor area ratio (FAR), floor space ratio (FSR), floor space index (FSI), site ratio and plot ratio are all terms for the ratio of a building's total floor area to the size of the parcel of land upon which it is built. The terms can also refer to limits imposed on such a ratio. As a formula: Floor area ratio = (total covered area on all floors of all buildings on a certain plot)/(area of the plot) Thus, an FSI of 2.0 would indicate that the total floor area of a building is two times the gross area of the plot on which it is constructed, as would be found in a multiple-story building. Floor area ratios are used as a measure of the intensity of the site being developed. The ratio is generated by dividing the building area by the parcel area, being sure to use the same units.[6] The floor area ratio can be used in zoning to limit the amount of construction in a certain area. For example, if the relevant zoning ordinance permits construction on a parcel, and if construction must adhere to a 0.10 FAR, then the total area of all floors in all buildings constructed on the parcel must be no more than one-tenth the area of the parcel itself. An architect can plan for either a single-story building consuming the entire allowable area in one floor, or a multi-story building that rises higher above the plane of the land, but which must consequently result in a smaller footprint than would a single-story building of the same total floor area. By combining the horizontal and vertical limits into a single figure, some flexibility is permitted in building design, while achieving a hard limit on at least one measure of overall size. One advantage to fixing this parameter, as opposed to others such as height, width, or length, is that floor area correlates well with other considerations relevant to zoning regulation, such as total parking that would be required for an office building, total number of units that might be available for residential use, total load on municipal services, etc. The amounts of these things tend to be constant for a given total floor area, regardless of how that area is distributed horizontally and vertically. Thus, many jurisdictions have found it unnecessary to include hard height limitations when using floor area ratio calculations.

Impact on land value

Edward Ptacek, 2009, noted that the allowable FAR has a major impact on the value of the land. Higher allowable FAR yields higher land value.

Criticism
Andres Duany, 2000, notes: 1. Abdicating to floor area ratios (market forces) is the opposite of aiming a community toward something more than the sum of its parts. 2. FAR, a poor predictor of physical form, should not be used when the objective is to conserve and enhance neighborhood character. Whereas traditional design standards (height, lot coverage and setbacks or build-to lines) enable anyone to make reasonably accurate predictions, recognize violations, and feel secure in their investment decisions. 3. If FAR is carelessly combined with traditional setbacks, assembled lots have a considerable advantage over individual lots, which has a negative effect on fine grained cities and the diversity of ownership.

Japan
Japan has extensively adopted the floor area ratio in the zoning system since 1970. The evaluation of the adoption is, however, controversial: some say that it has deteriorated the skylines and building lines in Japanese cities; others claim that it has protected the residential environments.

Circulation Area
Circulation area is the square footage in a building which provides people with access to the all of the spaces within the building. In many regions of the world, there are specific regulations about circulation area which are designed to make sure that this space meets accessibility and safety requirements for building users. The percentage of total square footage occupied by circulation area depends on a number of factors including building layout and size of the building. Some examples of things included in circulation area include: halls, corridors, elevators, stairs, lobbies, escalators, catwalks, and any other parts of a building which are designed to create access to a room or area within the building. Parts of loading docks, for example, may be termed circulation area because they provide people with access to and from the loading dock and the building. Circulation area can be altered by activities such as moving partitions and creating catwalks. In order to qualify as part of the circulation area, an area must have ceilings high enough to permit passage. For accessibility reasons, there may also be width requirements which are designed to accommodate people who use mobility devices which as wheelchairs and walkers inside the building. Safety may also mandate width sufficient for people to evacuate quickly, along with multiple modes of ingress and egress so that people can still get out if part of the building is cut off or damaged. When people make square footage calculations, circulation area is one among many areas which can be considered in the calculation. Distribution of square footage can be important for certain types of projects, and to meet government requirements. Governments may mandate that a set amount of square footage be set aside for specific uses for safety reasons, for example. Circulation area is square footage which also cannot be sold or rented, which means that it may be considered differently in taxes and other types of financial calculations. Blueprints and CAD drawings of a building can highlight circulation area and provide square footage estimates which allow people to see whether or not a building will meet needs and requirements. These estimates can also be used when packaging a proposed project for review, so that the people conducting the review can have this basic information on hand when evaluating the proposed building or proposed modifications. Enforcers of various building codes may take special interest in this phase to determine whether or not the building meets government requirements.