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Open plan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The team-oriented "bullpen", an example of open plan in use
Asea of cubicles,one type of open plan
Anoffice landscapefloor plan, another type of open plan
An information technology department in a French company in 2019

Open planis the generic term used inarchitecturalandinterior designfor anyfloor planthat makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as privateoffices.The term can also refer tolandscapingof housing estates, business parks, etc., in which there are no defined property boundaries, such as hedges, fences, or walls.

Open-plan office designs (e.g., tables with no visual barriers) reduce short-term building costs, compared to cubicles or private offices, but result in persistently lowerproductivity,dramatically fewer face-to-face interactions among staff, and a higher number ofsick days.[1]Anopen office planmay have permanently assigned spaces at a table, or it may be used as aflex spaceorhot deskingprogram.

In residential design,open planoropen concept(the term used mainly in Canada)[2]describes the elimination of barriers such as walls and doors that traditionally separated distinct functional areas, such as combining thekitchen,living room,anddining roominto a singlegreat room.

Homes

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Many pre-industrial homes werehutsthat consisted of a single room, but this was usually small. Already in the Middle Ages, however, there were some single-room hearth-heatedhall houses,for example in England, that were large enough so they could develop into multi-room houses. Multi-room houses however didn't become popular until later when the country industrialized, as a result of which more people could afford them.

In the 1880s,[clarification needed]small public rooms of the home with specific functions began to be replaced by larger rooms that fulfilled multiple uses, butkitchens,bedrooms,andbathroomsremained enclosed private spaces.[3]Larger rooms were made possible by advances in centralized heating that allowed larger spaces to be kept at comfortable temperatures.[3]

Frank Lloyd Wrightwas one of the early advocates for open plan design in houses,[4]expanding on the ideas ofCharles and Henry Greeneandshingle style architecture.[5]Wright's designs were based on a centralized kitchen open to other public spaces of the home where thehousewifecould be "more hostess 'officio', operating in gracious relation to her home, instead of being a kitchen mechanic behind closed doors."[6]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.[7]

A home with this type of layout has one or more large, open rooms that function as multiple rooms within a single living space. The most common design is agreat roomthat combines the kitchen, dining room, and living room into one shared space. Such floor plans usually work well in homes with a smaller area, while larger homes have more leeway to work with[clarification needed]when integrating great rooms into a floor plan.[8]The removal of interior walls increases views and allows sunlight from windows in the exterior walls to spread throughout the house.

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.[9]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).[7]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.[7][10]

Office spaces

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Development of open-plan workspace types

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Prior to the 1950s open-plan offices mostly consisted of large regular rows of desks or benches whereclerks,typists,ortechniciansperformed repetitive tasks.[11]Such designs were rooted in the work ofindustrial engineersorefficiency expertssuch asFrederick Winslow TaylorandHenry Ford.In the 1950s a German team namedQuickbornerdeveloped theoffice landscape,which used conventional furniture, curved screens, large potted plants, and organic geometry to creatework groupson large, open floors. Office landscape was quickly supplanted by office-furniture companies which developedcubiclesbased on panel-hung orsystems furniture.Many terms (mostly derisive) have been used over time for offices using the old-style, large arrays of open cubicles.

An increase inknowledge workand the emergence ofmobile technologyduring the late 20th-century led to an evolution in open-plan offices.[12][13]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 includehoteling,"alternative officing"[14]and "hot desking".

Michael Bloombergused a team-orientedbullpenstyle – where employees can see and hear each other freely, but desks are grouped into teams – at his media companyBloomberg L.P.and for his staff whileMayor of New York City[15](in office: 2002–2013).

Evaluation

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A systematic survey of research upon the effects of open-plan offices found frequent negative effects in some traditional workplaces: high levels ofnoise,stress,conflict,high blood pressureand a highstaff turnover.[16][17]

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.[18]Noisy new technologies, likevoice-activationand mobile phones, also decrease effectiveness in the open-plan setting.[19]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.[20]Employees worry that speaking out loud will distract their co-workers.[20]

Some design goals of open plan offices include letting everyone see what everyone else is doing at any given moment, reducinginformation silosby letting everyone overhear what everyone else is saying, andflattening organizational hierarchies.[21]

Although promoted as a way to encourage collaboration, speed decision-making, and increase the group'scollective 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.[22]Open-plan offices have frequently been found to reduce theconfidentialor privateconversationswhich employees engage in, and to reducejob satisfaction,concentrationandperformance,whilst increasing auditory and visual distractions.[23][13][24]

Open-plan offices elevate the risk of employees needing to take time off for sickness.[25][26]The more people working in a single room, the more sick time is needed.[25]People who work in open-office plans containing more than six people take over 160%as manysick days as those who work in private offices.[27]Different plans have slightly different risks; for example, men working in aflex spacehave a significantly increased risk for short-term illnesses (e.g., thecommon coldorinfluenza).[26]Easily spread respiratory diseases such asCOVID-19may militate against working in open-plan offices.[28]

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.[29]

References

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  1. ^Bodin Danielsson, Christina; Chungkham, Holendro Singh; Wulff, Cornelia; Westerlund, Hugo (2014-02-01)."Office design's impact on sick leave rates".Ergonomics.57(2): 139–147.doi:10.1080/00140139.2013.871064.ISSN0014-0139.PMID24460745.
  2. ^Definition of open-conceptatDictionary
  3. ^abWard, Peter (2011-01-01).A History of Domestic Space: Privacy and the Canadian Home.UBC Press.pp. 37–.ISBN9780774841825.Retrieved1 June2014.
  4. ^Schwartz, Tony; Gomes, Jean; McCarthy, Catherine (2011-02-01).Be Excellent at Anything: The Four Keys To Transforming the Way We Work and.Simon and Schuster. pp. 224–.ISBN9781451639452.Retrieved1 June2014.
  5. ^Elliott, Lynn (May–June 2002)."Breaking Down Walls".Old-House Journal.Active Interest Media,Inc.: 50–53.Retrieved1 June2014.
  6. ^Schoenauer, Norbert (2003-06-24).6,000 Years of Housing.W.W. Norton. pp. 384–.ISBN9780393731200.Retrieved1 June2014.
  7. ^abcThe Case for Rooms
  8. ^"The Pros and Cons of Open Floor Plans | Case Design/Remodeling".3 April 2012.
  9. ^"People in open-concept homes are realizing the walls were there for a reason".The Boston Globe.
  10. ^"The new home trend: two kitchens".House Beautiful.August 14, 2014.
  11. ^Duffy, F. (1997). The new office. London Conran Octopus
  12. ^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.
  13. ^abDavis, 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
  14. ^"Cornell study".
  15. ^Nagourney, Adam."Bloomberg Vows to Work at Center of Things",New York Times
  16. ^Vinesh Oommen (13 Jan 2009),"Why your office could be making you sick",Asia-Pacific Journal of Health Management,archived fromthe originalon February 18, 2009
  17. ^Vinesh Oommen."Why your office could be making you sick: study".Asia-Pacific Journal of Health Management.Archived fromthe originalon 2016-01-21.Retrieved2015-11-11.
  18. ^Treasure, Julian (16 October 2009)."The 4 ways sound affects us".TED.TED Talks. TED.Retrieved2015-06-16.You are one third as productive in open-plan offices as in quiet rooms.
  19. ^Langston, Craig; Lauge-Kristensen, Rima (2013).Strategic Management of Built Facilities.Routledge. p. 137.ISBN9781135138738.Retrieved2015-06-16.[...] voice-activated technology and mobile phones are increasing office noise levels and decreasing the effectiveness of existing open-plan arrangements.
  20. ^abWertz, Jia."Open-Plan Work Spaces Lower Productivity And Employee Morale".Forbes.
  21. ^"Open Office Plans: Advantages, Disadvantages, & Research".Adventure Associates.June 4, 2015.
  22. ^Bernstein, Ethan S.; Turban, Stephen (2018-08-19)."The impact of the 'open' workspace on human collaboration".Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B.373(1753): 20170239.doi:10.1098/rstb.2017.0239.ISSN0962-8436.PMC6030579.PMID29967303.
  23. ^Kim, Jungsoo; de Dear, Richard (2013)."Workspace satisfaction: The privacy-communication trade-off in open-plan offices"(PDF).Journal of Environmental Psychology.36:18–26.doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2013.06.007.S2CID18616604.
  24. ^Elsbach, K. D.; Pratt, M. G. (2007)."Chapter 4: The Physical Environment in Organizations".The Academy of Management Annals.1(1): 181–224.doi:10.1080/078559809.
  25. ^abMauss, Daniel; Jarczok, Marc N.; Genser, Bernd; Herr, Raphael (2022-06-09)."Association of open-plan offices and sick leave - a systematic review and meta-analysis".Industrial Health.61(3): 173–183.doi:10.2486/indhealth.2022-0053.ISSN1880-8026.PMC10269830.PMID35675991.
  26. ^abBodin Danielsson, Christina; Chungkham, Holendro Singh; Wulff, Cornelia; Westerlund, Hugo (2014). "Office design's impact on sick leave rates".Ergonomics.57(2): 139–147.doi:10.1080/00140139.2013.871064.PMID24460745.S2CID20019920.
  27. ^Pejtersen, Jan H; Feveile, Helene; Christensen, Karl B; Burr, Hermann (September 2011)."Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices – a national cross sectional questionnaire survey".Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health.37(5): 376–382.doi:10.5271/sjweh.3167.ISSN0355-3140.PMID21528171.
  28. ^ Richtel, Matt(7 May 2020)."Goodbye open plan, hello cubicles: What will offices look like after Covid-19?".The Irish Times.Retrieved28 May2020.
  29. ^ Candido C.; Chakraborty P.; Tjondronegoro D. (March 28, 2019)."The Rise of Office Design in High-Performance, Open-Plan Environments".Buildings.100(9): 100.doi:10.3390/buildings9040100.hdl:10072/386437.The majority of papers found in this Scopus search point to several shortcomings of open-plan offices, sometimes suggesting solutions to address dissatisfaction.
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