Open plan office spaces that work harder

Work shifts between focus, collaboration and informal exchange through the day, and rarely on a fixed schedule. Open plan needs to carry it all, letting people move between modes without friction.

The best open plan spaces make room for that rhythm. They hold energy and calm side by side, and they give people a genuine choice about where to do different types of work.

This guide looks at what open plan does well when it’s designed around behaviour instead of headcount.

What’s inside

• Settings that earn their place. From team neighbourhoods to project zones, how to build variety into a floor while keeping it coherent.
• Where older layouts run short. Why desks and meeting rooms alone no longer reflect how people move through their week.
• Designing for different needs. How acoustics, zoning and sensory balance make open plan more inclusive and more effective.
• Built to keep evolving. The questions worth asking so your space can adapt as your teams do.