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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Open Plan: A Design History of the American Office
Originally inspired by a progressive vision of a working environment without walls or hierarchies, the open plan office has since come to be associated with some of the most dehumanizing and alienating aspects of the modern office. Author Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler traces the history and evolution of the American open plan from the brightly-colored office landscapes of the 1960s and 1970s to the monochromatic cubicles of the 1980s and 1990s, analyzing it both as a design concept promoted by architects, designers, and furniture manufacturers, and as a real work space inhabited by organizations and used by workers.
The thematically structured chapters each focus on an attribute of the open plan to highlight the ideals embedded in the original design concept and the numerous technical, material, spatial, and social problems that emerged as it became a mainstream office design widely used in public and private organizations across the United States. Kaufmann-Buhler's fascinating new book weaves together a variety of voices, perspectives, and examples to capture the tensions embedded in the open plan concept and to unravel the assumptions, expectations, and inequities at its core.
The thematically structured chapters each focus on an attribute of the open plan to highlight the ideals embedded in the original design concept and the numerous technical, material, spatial, and social problems that emerged as it became a mainstream office design widely used in public and private organizations across the United States. Kaufmann-Buhler's fascinating new book weaves together a variety of voices, perspectives, and examples to capture the tensions embedded in the open plan concept and to unravel the assumptions, expectations, and inequities at its core.
Book Details
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
- Publish Date: Jan 14th, 2021
- Pages: 216
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 9.10in - 6.10in - 0.40in - 0.83lb
- EAN: 9781350044739
- Categories: • History & Criticism• Buildings - Public, Commercial & Industrial• Interior Design - General
About the Author
Kaufmann-Buhler, Jennifer: - Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler is Associate Professor of Design History at Purdue University, USA. She is a design historian focusing on American interiors, technology, and furniture design of the 20th century. Her research includes an emphasis on studying mundane spaces and objects as a way of examining the role of design in everyday life, looking at the intersection of the social, technological, and political aspects of design. She has published articles in the Journal of Design History and Design and Culture, is the author of Open Plan (Bloomsbury, 2021) and co-edited Design History Beyond the Canon (Bloomsbury, 2019).
Lees-Maffei, Grace: - Grace Lees-Maffei is Professor of Design History at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. She is the editor of Iconic Designs (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2014) and Writing Design (Berg, 2011), co-author of Reading Graphic Design in Cultural Context (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019), and co-editor of Made in Italy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013) and The Design History Reader (Berg, 2010, second edition forthcoming). She is also co-editor of Bloomsbury's Cultural Histories of Design series.
Fallan, Kjetil: - Kjetil Fallan is Professor of Design History at the University of Oslo, Norway. He is the author of Design History (Bloomsbury Academic, 2010), the editor of Scandinavian Design (Bloomsbury Academic, 2012) and co-editor of Made in Italy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013). He is also co-editor of Bloomsbury's Cultural Histories of Design series and an editor of the Journal of Design History.
Praise for this book
Open Plan takes us into the complex world of the post-war American office, not just through the eyes of the architects and designers and managers who created it but also through those who worked in it. From the concept of 'Bürolandschaft' to Herman Miller's Action Office to the 'alternative' office and beyond, this highly original text shows us how the open workplace operated within the broader social, cultural, technological and political context of the period.
As coronavirus creates unprecedented disruptions to workplaces and working patterns, the time is ripe for this rich study of an earlier revolution in office design: the postwar rise of open-plan offices and systems furniture. At the heart of open plan design was a conviction that offices had to accommodate change flexibly. But what happened when architects' ideals of managed change clashed with users' unplanned occupations? This engaging book counters the story of well-known office and furniture designers with that of less visible producers, managers and workers, producing a nuanced account of open-plan in all its variations.
Weaving together histories of interior design, architecture, and organizational management, Kaufmann-Buhler offers a provocative critique of the open plan office in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She delves into the history of office systems, furniture, and idealized plans, and then interrogates it all with an eye on the "messy reality" of how any one of us occupies a work space day in, day out. Written in engaging prose, with archival illustrations, this book demonstrates how the open plan office structures privilege in the workplace, compels certain behaviors, and ultimately shapes the working lives of all users.