4 ms·

The reason why open plan offices are here to stay is because they are much more space efficient than traditional offices and therefore cheaper. Traditional offi

by willyt 13y ago

The reason why open plan offices are here to stay is because they are much more space efficient than traditional offices and therefore cheaper. Traditional offices use up lots of space for corridors, door swings and duplicated circulation routes to desks etc. Also, only the offices on the perimeter of the building have a view to the outside so it limits the depth of the plan, unless you run the kind of business which has miserable employees. They also require more complicated a/c, fire alarms, lighting.

keithpeter 13y ago
I take your point but schools and colleges seem to manage the 'large number of medium sized rooms each with some daylight, corridor, escape route' problem. Classrooms can be converted into 10 to 12 person offices relatively easily. There has been quite a lot of new building in schools and colleges in the UK, so I'll try to find costings. Mind you, the new college buildings at least in UK also have open plan offices for teaching and admin staff. Many of my colleagues do prep work in unoccupied classrooms or work at home or do prep at odd times when the staff room is quiet. This, of course, short circuits the interaction argument for open plan offices.
- agilebyte 13y ago
  Yeah, can't imagine how you are supposed to have a 1-on-1 private convo with a student in an open environment like that either. Perhaps there always needs to be a bunch of break out rooms for use too.
  - rubinelli 13y ago
    Open floor spaces normally have a few meeting rooms. A very common anti-pattern is senior staff "temporarily" occupying these rooms and turning them into private offices, so the rest of the team is not only deprived of privacy, but also of adequate meeting space. But hey, stand-up meetings are awesome, right?
    - robin_reala 13y ago
      We just kick them out when it’s time to have a meeting :)
  - keithpeter 13y ago
    Ooops I forgot to mention those. We call them conference rooms. You book them via the Intranet but you can't just have one to work in! The Library also has 'tutorial rooms' but those have glass walls so are less good for 'chats' of the telling off variety.
- VladRussian2 13y ago
  >Many of my colleagues do prep work in unoccupied classrooms or work at home or do prep at odd times when the staff room is quiet. This, of course, short circuits the interaction argument for open plan offices. yep, looking at the number of empty desks in our newly converted (with big pompousness touting increased collaboration and innovation) offices i see the same effect. Personally, i also decreased my office hours and when in the office i usually with headphones on enjoying 80ies metal
- willyt 13y ago
  You're right, research shows that about 10 people is the best number of people in a team and therefore if it was just a question of doing a good design you would design spaces around these units. But, as I explained in my other comment below, design is unfortunately driven by the market economics of land values much more than the needs of end users.
James_Duval 13y ago
Cheaper, but also worse for employee health and morale, is not necessarily cheaper in the long-term. Movable glass walls and partitions address most of your other concerns, I think.
- willyt 13y ago
  As an architect and as a human that has had to work in these kind of offices, I completely agree. But the spec of offices is usually decided by a developer to maximise rental income, not the convenience of the end user. It's pretty unusual for a company to have it's own headquarters built to a custom design these days. In fact, you usually have different architects designing the shell and core to those designing the fit out. The developers architect designing the shell and core will have been instructed to maximise the lettable area based on the assumption that the fit out will most likely be open plan as that what the rental market is asking for. The fit out design will typically be done by the the lessor's architect after the shell and core is under construction. So yes, you can fit out partitions for lots of cellular offices but they will cost you a massive amount of money in rent as you will waste quite a lot of Net Office Area in doing so. Bear in mind that typical Cat 1 office rents in London are about £500 to 700/m2/year. If you really cram people in like call centres you allow about 6m2 per person out of Net Office Area. Boutique corporate lawyers more like 12-15m2. Resulting cost per staff member of £3000 to £10000 per year just to rent their desk space. So a company like Google with a progressive attitude and more money than they know what to do with will fit out to maximise productivity, but most others will fit out to minimise rental costs.

by willyt 13y ago

keithpeter 13y ago

I take your point but schools and colleges seem to manage the 'large number of medium sized rooms each with some daylight, corridor, escape route' problem. Classrooms can be converted into 10 to 12 person offices relatively easily. There has been quite a lot of new building in schools and colleges in the UK, so I'll try to find costings. Mind you, the new college buildings at least in UK also have open plan offices for teaching and admin staff. Many of my colleagues do prep work in unoccupied classrooms or work at home or do prep at odd times when the staff room is quiet. This, of course, short circuits the interaction argument for open plan offices.

agilebyte 13y ago
Yeah, can't imagine how you are supposed to have a 1-on-1 private convo with a student in an open environment like that either. Perhaps there always needs to be a bunch of break out rooms for use too.
- rubinelli 13y ago
  Open floor spaces normally have a few meeting rooms. A very common anti-pattern is senior staff "temporarily" occupying these rooms and turning them into private offices, so the rest of the team is not only deprived of privacy, but also of adequate meeting space. But hey, stand-up meetings are awesome, right?
  - robin_reala 13y ago
    We just kick them out when it’s time to have a meeting :)
- keithpeter 13y ago
  Ooops I forgot to mention those. We call them conference rooms. You book them via the Intranet but you can't just have one to work in! The Library also has 'tutorial rooms' but those have glass walls so are less good for 'chats' of the telling off variety.
VladRussian2 13y ago
>Many of my colleagues do prep work in unoccupied classrooms or work at home or do prep at odd times when the staff room is quiet. This, of course, short circuits the interaction argument for open plan offices. yep, looking at the number of empty desks in our newly converted (with big pompousness touting increased collaboration and innovation) offices i see the same effect. Personally, i also decreased my office hours and when in the office i usually with headphones on enjoying 80ies metal
willyt 13y ago
You're right, research shows that about 10 people is the best number of people in a team and therefore if it was just a question of doing a good design you would design spaces around these units. But, as I explained in my other comment below, design is unfortunately driven by the market economics of land values much more than the needs of end users.

James_Duval 13y ago

Cheaper, but also worse for employee health and morale, is not necessarily cheaper in the long-term. Movable glass walls and partitions address most of your other concerns, I think.

willyt 13y ago
As an architect and as a human that has had to work in these kind of offices, I completely agree. But the spec of offices is usually decided by a developer to maximise rental income, not the convenience of the end user. It's pretty unusual for a company to have it's own headquarters built to a custom design these days. In fact, you usually have different architects designing the shell and core to those designing the fit out. The developers architect designing the shell and core will have been instructed to maximise the lettable area based on the assumption that the fit out will most likely be open plan as that what the rental market is asking for. The fit out design will typically be done by the the lessor's architect after the shell and core is under construction. So yes, you can fit out partitions for lots of cellular offices but they will cost you a massive amount of money in rent as you will waste quite a lot of Net Office Area in doing so. Bear in mind that typical Cat 1 office rents in London are about £500 to 700/m2/year. If you really cram people in like call centres you allow about 6m2 per person out of Net Office Area. Boutique corporate lawyers more like 12-15m2. Resulting cost per staff member of £3000 to £10000 per year just to rent their desk space. So a company like Google with a progressive attitude and more money than they know what to do with will fit out to maximise productivity, but most others will fit out to minimise rental costs.