Physicist John Baez (see quote below) has suggested that the Planck area h-barG/c3 is even more fundamental than the Planck length, which is its square root.
A simple way to see how the area arises naturally is as follows. h-bar×c is a natural quantity of force×area, or equivalently of energy×length, which is present in all light. It is, for example, the product of each photon's energy multiplied by its vacuum angular wavelength. But there is a constant force c4/G which plays a prominent role in gravity as the central coefficient in the Einstein equation relating energy-momentum density to curvature. This is the natural unit or Planck force—that giving unit acceleration to unit mass in the Planck system.
To get the Planck area all one needs to do is divide the Planck force×area quantity (h-bar×c) by the Planck force (c4/G). It is easy to see that the result is h-barG/c3.
This area is the square of the Planck length, the CODATA recommended value for which is 1.6160×10-35 meter with estimated uncertainty of about 1/13 of a percent.
Quote from John Baez:
[[...in the usual Planck units, the Planck length is sqrt(G hbar / c^3) When you see a square root, it's often a hint that some simpler idea without a square root is lurking around the corner! This suggests that perhaps more fundamental than the Planck length is the "Planck area" G hbar / c^3 And, lo and behold: in loop quantum gravity, area turns out to be more fundamental than length! ...]]