Designing Open-Plan Offices: Increasing Productivity and Collaboration
Posted: 09.14.09
By Kimball Office Social Media Team

Open-plan offices. What does that really mean, anyway? Are the cubicles in Office Space considered open plan? Do open plan offices always use cubicles? Are all cubicles created equal?

Who better to ask than the experts: Shelly Lehner, specification support team leader and Lori Fuselier, product specifier. These two help clients go from idea to design, drawing the plans for a variety of offices all over the country.

KO: So, why go open plan?

SL: It’s easier to collaborate in open-plans vs. private offices. When someone is working in a private office, most people’s natural instinct is to not want to bother them.

KO: Do certain types of organizations prefer open plan offices?

SL: I don’t know that there’s a type of organization that prefers open plan offices. I’d say that open plan offices are pretty much standard across the board today.

LF: I agree. Most of the projects I see have offices on the outer edges, and open plan offices in the middle.

KO: What do open plan workspaces look like – are they always cubicles?

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