Author Talk: "Open Plan: A Design History of the American Office"

Anyone who has worked in an office likely are aware of the open plan concept that is commonplace in those settings. Our first author talk on October 5 will place these design efforts in a historical context. Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler’s book Open Plan: A Design History of the American Office traces the American open plan from the brightly colored office landscapes of the 1960s to the monochromatic cubicles of the 1990s. In her talk she will analyze the “Open Plan” as a design concept promoted by architects, designers, and furniture manufacturers as well as a real workspace inhabited by organizations and used by workers. In doing Kaufmann-Buhler traces the 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.