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Architecture vocabulary · Space, Form and Composition

Open plan

Meaning in architecture, with examples

nounCore term

In architecture, open plan means: A layout with few or no internal walls, so that functions such as cooking, eating and living, or many desks in an office, share one large space.

In Turkish: açık plan

How it is used

Very common in housing and office design. Before a noun it takes a hyphen: an open-plan kitchen, open-plan offices. American English often says 'open floor plan'. Architects weigh its benefits (light, flexibility) against its problems (noise, privacy).

Example sentences

  1. The ground floor is open plan, with the kitchen, dining and living areas in one space.

  2. Many staff say the open-plan office is too noisy for focused work.

Common collocations

  • open-plan kitchen
  • open-plan office
  • open-plan living area
  • open floor plan
  • layoutThe way rooms, furniture or areas are arranged within a plan, including their sizes, positions and relationships to each other.
  • partition wallAn internal wall that divides one space from another but does not carry the building's structural loads, so it can usually be moved or removed.
  • ModernismThe early to mid-20th-century movement that rejected historical decoration and favoured function, simple forms, open plans and new materials like steel, glass and concrete.
  • floor planA drawing that shows a building from above as if it were cut horizontally about a metre above the floor, showing walls, doors, windows and rooms.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Space, Form and Composition

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