Interior space with as few fixed partitions as possible, made practical when frames of steel and reinforced concrete took the loads out of interior walls. Frank Lloyd Wright's flowing Prairie interiors and Le Corbusier's free plan opened the idea, and it has governed houses and offices ever since, along with the running argument over how much openness people actually want.
Facts
Disputed
Formulated YearThis source narrows the German Quickborner team's office landscape concept, the specific innovation that broke walls out of the office plan, only to the 1950s, not a single year; 1950 anchors the stated decade rather than a claimed precise date. The domestic open plan under Frank Lloyd Wright is older still and also carries no single year in this source. Domain
Domain (category) Concept Domain FAQs
What made open plan interiors structurally possible?
Steel and reinforced concrete frames, which took the load-bearing role away from interior walls.
Frames of steel and reinforced concrete, which took the load-bearing role away from interior walls and let architects remove fixed partitions, as Frank Lloyd Wright's flowing Prairie interiors and Le Corbusier's free plan first showed.
Connections
Associated With
The flowing interiors of the Prairie houses opened the modern open plan.
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Editorial link from the concept to a related style, element, milestone or figure; no citation attached
Sources
1. Encyclopedia Britannica
2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationOpen plan, Development of open-plan workspace types sectionQuote, Open plan, Development of open-plan workspace types section
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.
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