Open Plan - (Cultural Histories of Design) by Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Inspired by a progressive vision of a working environment without walls or hierarchies, the open plan office has come to be associated with some of the most dehumanizing and alienating aspects of the modern office. This fascinating new book examines the history of the open plan office concept from its early development in the late 1960s and 1970s, through its present-day dominance in working spaces throughout the world, examining the design, meaning, and use of the open plan from the perspective of architects and designers, organizations, and workers"--

Book Synopsis

Originally inspired by a progressive vision of a working environment without walls or hierarchies, the open plan office has since come to be associated with some of the most dehumanizing and alienating aspects of the modern office. Author Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler traces the history and evolution of the American open plan from the brightly-colored office landscapes of the 1960s and 1970s to the monochromatic cubicles of the 1980s and 1990s, analyzing it both as a design concept promoted by architects, designers, and furniture manufacturers, and as a real work space inhabited by organizations and used by workers.

The thematically structured chapters each focus on an attribute of the open plan to highlight the ideals embedded in the original design concept and the numerous technical, material, spatial, and social problems that emerged as it became a mainstream office design widely used in public and private organizations across the United States. Kaufmann-Buhler's fascinating new book weaves together a variety of voices, perspectives, and examples to capture the tensions embedded in the open plan concept and to unravel the assumptions, expectations, and inequities at its core.

Review Quotes

Open Plan takes us into the complex world of the post-war American office, not just through the eyes of the architects and designers and managers who created it but also through those who worked in it. From the concept of 'Bürolandschaft' to Herman Miller's Action Office to the 'alternative' office and beyond, this highly original text shows us how the open workplace operated within the broader social, cultural, technological and political context of the period.

As coronavirus creates unprecedented disruptions to workplaces and working patterns, the time is ripe for this rich study of an earlier revolution in office design: the postwar rise of open-plan offices and systems furniture. At the heart of open plan design was a conviction that offices had to accommodate change flexibly. But what happened when architects' ideals of managed change clashed with users' unplanned occupations? This engaging book counters the story of well-known office and furniture designers with that of less visible producers, managers and workers, producing a nuanced account of open-plan in all its variations.

Weaving together histories of interior design, architecture, and organizational management, Kaufmann-Buhler offers a provocative critique of the open plan office in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She delves into the history of office systems, furniture, and idealized plans, and then interrogates it all with an eye on the "messy reality" of how any one of us occupies a work space day in, day out. Written in engaging prose, with archival illustrations, this book demonstrates how the open plan office structures privilege in the workplace, compels certain behaviors, and ultimately shapes the working lives of all users.

About the Author

Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler is Assistant Professor of Design History at Purdue University, USA, where her research focuses on the interactions and intersections of people, space, and things in everyday life. She has published articles in The Journal of Design History and Design and Culture, and she co-edited the essay collection Design History Beyond the Canon (Bloomsbury, 2019).