OPEN PLAN LIVING IN DOMESTIC INTERIORS

Open Plan Living In Domestic Interiors



Open Plan Living In Domestic Interiors

Introduction

The open plan as it was built by avante-garde architects like Le Corbusier, Mies and Frank Lloyd Wright was not simply about the elimination of walls and partitions: it also involved the creation of a new architectural language for distinguishing between distinct settings while maintaining transparency. The two ongoing projects introduced here explore the use of sensors and displays embedded in architectural elements (ceilings, built-in shelving) to enhance the experience of the building by selectively revealing aspects of its functioning and operation through information visualization. The question we have addressed in these projects is: How can we augment the open plan to better support the migratory and spontaneous work habits of the contemporary distributed workforce? By displaying information about the building and its use that can be appropriated by inhabitants to make better use of their environment, these projects suggest one approach to recapturing the differentiation of the open plan.

Analysis

First developed by the architectural avante-garde in the early 20th century, the idea of the open plan was the result of a desire for greater transparency and flexibility in the design of interior environments. Essential to the functioning of the open plan in these early projects is the subtle articulation of differences between one part of the open interior and another. Later co-opted as an efficient means of achieving maximum density in office environments, the open plan as commonly practiced in the latter half of the 20th century resulted in undifferentiated, homogeneous settings that failed to realize the original intentions of this architectural idea. Embedded information technology offers an opportunity to support the differentiation and legibility of the open plan by sensing and displaying aspects of the building's environmental conditions and patterns of use. We introduce two ongoing projects as examples of building interfaces that enhance the transparency of information in the building, using surfaces embedded in the building to reveal invisible attributes of the interior that can be used by inhabitants to better understand their environment.

The open plan

The open plan emerged in the 20th century as the result of a desire for increased transparency and flexibility in the arrangement of architectural interiors. As Le Corbusier wrote in 1929, “With reinforced concrete you get rid of walls completely” [1]. Similarly, Frank Lloyd Wright writing in 1931 stated: “Walls as walls fell away [with the dawn of the machine age]. The vanishing wall joined the disappearing cave” [2]. Prevailing architectural practice prior to this time had conceived rooms as volumes enclosed by walls, with one activity assigned to each room. The open plan was developed in contrast to such a strict delineation of function, and proposed instead a transparency and flexibility of function: transparency because each setting within the interior was open and visible to every other, and flexibility in that any given part of the interior was designed to support a range of possible ...