Patented: History of Inventions cover image

Open Plan Office

Patented: History of Inventions

CHAPTER

The Dream of Open Plan Offices

The dream of an open plan office is that we're all equal, but the reality is you kind of want hierarchy and private spaces. The legacy here is pretty clear that it was not the Hellsian utopia that it was imagined to be. But I think very quickly there also is this kind of failure of the open plan in terms of things like noise. It was an incredibly noisy environment. And so they sort of had this idea, oh yeah, you have privacy. You just don't realize that privacy. This is a psychological re-framing of what privacy is.

00:00
Transcript
Play full episode

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts

Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.
App store bannerPlay store banner