Open plan

File:Angel Inn, Highgate, N6.jpg

Many pre-industrial homes were huts that consisted of a single room, but this was usually small. Already in the Middle Ages, however, there were some single-room hearth-heated hall houses, shop houses, and Inn houses with rent employed owner-occupants. For example in pre-plague London England. After the plague owners of houses in London added rooms. These rooms began to be labeled with a name and a furnishing practice.{{cite book |author1=Katherine L. French |title=Household Goods and Good Households in Late Medieval London: Consumption and Domesticity After the Plague |date=2021 |publisher= University of Pennsylvania Press Incorporated |isbn=9780812299533 |pages=76}}

In the 1880s middle class suburban houses for families replaced small public rooms of the home with specific functions with larger rooms that fulfilled multiple uses. Walls were abolished or replaced with archways that had glass doors or sliding doors. But kitchens, bedrooms, and bathrooms remained enclosed private spaces. Larger rooms were made possible by advances in centralized heating that allowed larger spaces to be kept at comfortable temperatures.{{cite book |last=Ward|first=Peter |title=A History of Domestic Space: Privacy and the Canadian Home |date=2011 |publisher=UBC Press |isbn=9780774841825 |pages=37}}

Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the early advocates for open plan design in houses,{{cite book|last1=Schwartz |first1=Tony |last2=Gomes |first2=Jean |last3=McCarthy |first3=Catherine |title=Be Excellent at Anything: The Way We're Working Isn't Working |date=2010 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9781451639452 |pages=224}} expanding on the ideas of Charles and Henry Greene and shingle style architecture.{{cite journal|title=Breaking Down Walls|journal=Old-House Journal|last=Elliott|first=Lynn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fuAAoicT8rkC&pg=PA50|access-date=1 June 2014|date=May–June 2002|publisher=Active Interest Media Inc.|pages=50–53}} Wright's designs were based on a centralized kitchen open to other public spaces of the home where the housewife could be "more hostess 'officio', operating in gracious relation to her home, instead of being a kitchen mechanic behind closed doors."{{cite book|last=Schoenauer |first=Norbert |title=6,000 Years of Housing |date=2000 |publisher=W.W. Norton |isbn=9780393731200 |pages=384}} Not having a dividing wall between the kitchen and a combined living-dining room became more popular especially in the United States in the 1970s.

In the late 2010s, the open plan design became less common. Complaints about open plan designs include that they make it more difficult for different people to engage in different activities and make it difficult to hide clutter or a dirty kitchen.{{Cite web |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/03/06/miss-walls-cry-for-help-from-woman-living-home-with-open-floor-plan/qLl9QX8REvsQ5gKmaeCvFL/story.html |title=People in open-concept homes are realizing the walls were there for a reason |publisher=The Boston Globe }} Walls are useful to contain noise and smells and to provide privacy, and small rooms are more efficient to heat and cool (especially when kitchen appliances are in use).[https://www.citylab.com/design/2018/08/the-case-for-rooms/563216/ The Case for Rooms] A follow-on trend among relatively wealthy homeowners is to build a second "mess kitchen" where the actual activity of food preparation takes place, while entertaining happens in a clean kitchen that is part of the open concept space.{{Cite web |url=http://www.housebeautiful.co.uk/decorate/kitchen/news/a134/the-new-home-trend-two-kitchens/ |title=The new home trend: two kitchens |date=August 14, 2014 |publisher=House Beautiful}}

Prior to the 1950s open-plan offices mostly consisted of large regular rows of desks or benches where clerks, typists, or technicians performed repetitive tasks.Duffy, F. (1997). The new office. London Conran Octopus Such designs were rooted in the work of industrial engineers or efficiency experts such as Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford. In the 1950s a German team named Quickborner developed the office landscape, which used conventional furniture, curved screens, large potted plants, and organic geometry to create work groups on large, open floors.{{Cite web |last=Musser |first=George |title=The Origin of Cubicles and the Open-Plan Office |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-origin-of-cubicles-an/ |access-date=2024-10-15 |website=Scientific American |language=en}} Office landscape was quickly supplanted by office-furniture companies which developed cubicles based on panel-hung or systems furniture. Many terms (mostly derisive) have been used over time for offices using the old-style, large arrays of open cubicles.

An increase in knowledge work and the emergence of mobile technology during the late 20th-century led to an evolution in open-plan offices.Gillen, N. M. (2006). "The Future Workplace, Opportunities, Realities and Myths: A Practical Approach to Creating Meaningful Environments." In J. Worthington (Ed.), Reinventing the Workplace (2nd ed., pp. 61–78). Oxford: Architectural Press.Davis, M. C., Leach, D. J., & Clegg, C. W. (2011). "The Physical Environment of the Office: Contemporary and Emerging Issues." In G. P. Hodgkinson & J. K. Ford (Eds.), International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Vol. 26, pp. 193–235). Chichester, UK: Wiley. {{doi|10.1002/9781119992592.ch6}} Some companies experimented with designs that provided a mix of cubicles, open workstations, private offices, and group workstations. In some cases, these are not assigned to one particular individual, but are available to any employee of the company on either a reservable or "drop-in" (first come, first served) basis. Terms for this strategy include hoteling, "alternative officing"{{Cite web|url=http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/dea453_653/01students/zach_jason/|title=Cornell study}} and "hot desking".

Michael Bloomberg used a team-oriented bullpen style – where employees can see and hear each other freely, but desks are grouped into teams – at his media company Bloomberg L.P. and for his staff while Mayor of New York CityNagourney, Adam. [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/25/nyregion/bloomberg-vows-to-work-at-center-of-things.html "Bloomberg Vows to Work at Center of Things"], New York Times (in office: 2002–2013).

A systematic survey of research upon the effects of open-plan offices found frequent negative effects in some traditional workplaces: high levels of noise, stress, conflict, high blood pressure and a high staff turnover.{{citation|url= http://www.news.qut.edu.au/cgi-bin/WebObjects/News.woa/wa/goNewsPage?newsEventID=23175 |title= Why your office could be making you sick |author= Vinesh Oommen |work= Asia-Pacific Journal of Health Management |date= 13 Jan 2009 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090218071604/http://www.news.qut.edu.au/cgi-bin/WebObjects/News.woa/wa/goNewsPage?newsEventID=23175 |archive-date= February 18, 2009 }}

The noise level in open-plan offices greatly reduces productivity. Productivity in an open-office plan has been estimated to be one-third what the same workers would achieve in quiet rooms.{{cite web

| url = http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_the_4_ways_sound_affects_us/transcript?language=en

| title = The 4 ways sound affects us

| last1 = Treasure

| first1 = Julian

| website = TED.com

| series = TED Talks

| date = 16 October 2009

| publisher = TED

| access-date = 2015-06-16

| quote = You are one third as productive in open-plan offices as in quiet rooms.

}}

Noisy new technologies, like voice-activation and mobile phones, also decrease effectiveness in the open-plan setting.{{cite book

| last1 = Langston

| first1 = Craig

| last2 = Lauge-Kristensen

| first2 = Rima

| title = Strategic Management of Built Facilities

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nWscuilOYgsC

| publisher = Routledge

| date = 2013

| page = 137

| isbn = 9781135138738

| access-date = 2015-06-16

| quote = [...] voice-activated technology and mobile phones are increasing office noise levels and decreasing the effectiveness of existing open-plan arrangements.

}}

One study found employees were less likely to share their views on phone calls in open offices, because they worry that their co-workers will overhear them and judge them negatively.{{Cite web |last=Wertz |first=Jia |title=Open-Plan Work Spaces Lower Productivity And Employee Morale |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jiawertz/2019/06/30/open-plan-work-spaces-lower-productivity-employee-morale/ |website=Forbes}} Employees worry that speaking out loud will distract their co-workers.

Some design goals of open plan offices include letting everyone see what everyone else is doing at any given moment, reducing information silos by letting everyone overhear what everyone else is saying, and flattening organizational hierarchies.{{Cite web|url=https://www.adventureassoc.com/open-office-plans-the-advantages-disadvantages-and-research/|title=Open Office Plans: Advantages, Disadvantages, & Research|date=June 4, 2015|website=Adventure Associates}}

Although promoted as a way to encourage collaboration, speed decision-making, and increase the group's collective intelligence, open-plan offices result in a dramatic reduction in face-to-face interactions, as employees turn to digital communication, such as sending e-mail messages.{{Cite journal |last1=Bernstein |first1=Ethan S. |last2=Turban |first2=Stephen |date=2018-08-19 |title=The impact of the 'open' workspace on human collaboration |journal=Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B |language=en |volume=373 |issue=1753 |pages=20170239 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2017.0239 |issn=0962-8436 |pmc=6030579 |pmid=29967303}} Open-plan offices have frequently been found to reduce the confidential or private conversations which employees engage in, and to reduce job satisfaction, concentration and performance, whilst increasing auditory and visual distractions.{{cite journal|last1= Kim|first1= Jungsoo|last2= de Dear|first2= Richard|title= Workspace satisfaction: The privacy-communication trade-off in open-plan offices|journal= Journal of Environmental Psychology|date= 2013|volume=36|pages= 18–26|doi= 10.1016/j.jenvp.2013.06.007|s2cid= 18616604|url= https://escholarship.org/content/qt2gq017pb/qt2gq017pb.pdf?t=nx704p}}{{cite journal | last1 = Elsbach | first1 = K. D. | last2 = Pratt | first2 = M. G.

| year = 2007

| title = Chapter 4: The Physical Environment in Organizations

| url = https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9kx9p8hg

| journal = The Academy of Management Annals

| volume = 1 | issue = 1| pages = 181–224 | doi=10.1080/078559809

}}

Open-plan offices elevate the risk of employees needing to take time off for sickness.{{Cite journal |last1=Mauss |first1=Daniel |last2=Jarczok |first2=Marc N. |last3=Genser |first3=Bernd |last4=Herr |first4=Raphael |date=2022-06-09 |title=Association of open-plan offices and sick leave - a systematic review and meta-analysis |journal=Industrial Health |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages=173–183 |doi=10.2486/indhealth.2022-0053 |issn=1880-8026 |pmid=35675991|pmc=10269830 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal|last1= Bodin Danielsson|first1= Christina|last2= Chungkham|first2= Holendro Singh|last3= Wulff|first3= Cornelia|last4= Westerlund|first4= Hugo|title= Office design's impact on sick leave rates|journal= Ergonomics|date=2014|volume= 57|issue= 2|pages= 139–147|doi= 10.1080/00140139.2013.871064|pmid= 24460745|s2cid= 20019920}} The more people working in a single room, the more sick time is needed. People who work in open-office plans containing more than six people take over 160% as many sick days as those who work in private offices.{{Cite journal |last1=Pejtersen |first1=Jan H |last2=Feveile |first2=Helene |last3=Christensen |first3=Karl B |last4=Burr |first4=Hermann |date=September 2011 |title=Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices – a national cross sectional questionnaire survey |url=http://www.sjweh.fi/show_abstract.php?abstract_id=3167 |journal=Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health |language=en |volume=37 |issue=5 |pages=376–382 |doi=10.5271/sjweh.3167 |pmid=21528171 |issn=0355-3140|doi-access=free }} Different plans have slightly different risks; for example, men working in a flex space have a significantly increased risk for short-term illnesses (e.g., the common cold or influenza). Easily spread respiratory diseases such as COVID-19 may militate against working in open-plan offices.

{{cite news

| last1 = Richtel

| first1 = Matt

| author-link1 = Matt Richtel

| title = Goodbye open plan, hello cubicles: What will offices look like after Covid-19?

| url = https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/goodbye-open-plan-hello-cubicles-what-will-offices-look-like-after-covid-19-1.4245483

| newspaper = The Irish Times

| publication-date = 7 May 2020

| access-date = 28 May 2020

}}

Some negative aspects of open plan offices can be addressed with interior design, such as establishing separate places for face-to-face discussions or using materials that absorb noise.

{{cite journal

| title= The Rise of Office Design in High-Performance, Open-Plan Environments

| date=March 28, 2019|journal=Buildings |volume=100|issue=9|pages= 100

| doi=10.3390/buildings9040100|author1=Candido C.|author2=Chakraborty P.

| author3=Tjondronegoro D.|doi-access=free

| quote = The majority of papers found in this Scopus search point to several shortcomings of open-plan offices, sometimes suggesting solutions to address dissatisfaction.

|hdl=10072/386437|hdl-access=free}}

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Category:Interior design

Category:Human resource management