Open Plan Office

Patented: History of Inventions

The Open Plan Office. A little bit of you might die inside every time you hear those words. But we promise you the history of how they came to be is worth hearing.

Born at the same time as the counter cultural revolution of the 60s, Open Plan was supposed to create the offices that the egalitarian, free-thinking children of that revolution would want to work in.

The Open Plan Office was supposed to do away with stultifying hierarchies of post-war offices (think Mad Men). To give workers the flexibility to be their best selves and to allow the free flow of ideas.

Oh how the best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry!

Here to tell the story is Jennifer Kaufmann Buhler, a design historian and author of the book Open Plan: A Design History of the American Office.

Produced by Freddy Chick, edited by Joseph Knight, senior producer is Charlotte Long