Is Open Concept Design a Good Thing?

Open concept design has been the prevailing buzz word and planning method for several decades now. The idea is to essentially rid a house of individual rooms for the three primary living functions: the family space, the dining space, and the kitchen. You might think of an open concept plan as a large single room with all three elements, and you’d essentially be right. However, there are some issues with this concept which we’ll discuss below.

The Three Relationships of Living Spaces

To understand what distinguishes open concept planning, its best to know how the spaces of the three living functions can relate to each other. Let’s take a look at these below:

Independent Rooms

The first method of grouping the living functions is having separate rooms for each function. Though this has been around for centuries, especially for upper-class homes, it became the norm for common housing as the industrial revolution took place. Before then, homes often had a single large room centered around a fireplace at which meals would be cooked. This would be augmented with one or two bedrooms and maybe a room to store food.

Separate rooms means that each space is surrounded by walls on all sides with one or more doors connecting to circulation spaces (hallways) or to each other.

Keeping the kitchen in a separate room helped keep the heat generated from cooking out of the other living spaces, which was especially beneficial during the warmer months before the availability of air conditioning.

Having the living room separate from the dining room helped to isolate a space for visiting and relaxing from the room where eating occurs. This was beneficial when society was more formal.

When someone came to visit and stay for dinner you’d take them to the living room to visit while the meal was being prepared in the kitchen. The dining table could be set without disturbing the visitors. Once dinner was ready, it would be announced to the visitors and the group would make their way to the dining room.

Another benefit of separate rooms was that heating, and therefor fuel use, could be more easily controlled. Early homes might have had separate fireplaces for the formal living space and the formal dining space, having to only light a fire in the space when used. The same benefit occurred with the development of radiant heat (wood stoves and steam heat), where separate heating could occur in each room depending on need.

This tradition of planning remained common into the early 20th century. However, newer planning concepts began to arrive which would change how houses were planned.

Flowing Rooms and Spaces

One of the great architects that started to change how rooms and spaces were planned was Frank Lloyd Wright. Through experimentation in his early career he created the Prairie Style of architecture, which became one of the defining styles of true American house design.

The unique and defining feature of these homes was to rid houses of closed-off living and dining rooms in favor of open flowing spaces. The spaces were still well defined from each other, but the kitchen remained a separate room. This style of planning was a unique break from tradition and lives with us even today.

Flowing spaces can occur in a variety of ways. One is to have separate rooms but with broad openings in between the living and dining space. This became common in the Bungalow Style of housing in the 1920’s.

Beginning in the mid-1950’s newer suburban houses used this concept to suit a variety of floor plans, often ridding of any wall at all between the living room and dining room. Once air conditioning became common in the 1960’s even kitchens began to be opened up to the other spaces through the use of pass-through openings or peninsula cabinetry between spaces.

This era often combined both types of planning. Larger houses began to have a family room and breakfast room separate from the formal living room and dining room. This allowed for formal visitation while having a more casual family area at the rear of the house oriented to the back yard.

Open Concept

The late 20th century saw a change to a more casual culture and our house plans reflected that. As formal visitation became less common, separate living rooms and dining rooms began to disappear from floor plans.

The family room began to be the only living space, often sized large enough for a dining table to fit into the space. The kitchen would be adjacent and open to the family room, often defined as a separate space through the use of full height or partial height walls, openings in the walls so that people in the kitchen could still see into the family room, or peninsula cabinetry that often had bar-style seating.

With our more casual lifestyles visitors like to gather in the kitchen to visit with whoever’s preparing the meal. With isolated or separate kitchens this can lead to unintended interference with meal prep as people constantly have to move around while cabinets and appliances are being accessed.

True open concept planning began around the turn of the millennium, essentially becoming the standard for houses.

Rather than having one group of visitors isolated in a kitchen and the other in the living room, open planning allows simultaneous visitation with everyone else without interfering with food preparation. The island, often having bar-style seating, acts as a means to visit with the cook while staying out of the work area of the kitchen.

Open concept planning combines all three functions into a single living space, often called a Great Room. The kitchen became part of the family living space without any wall separation. The primary definer between the kitchen and the family area became the free-standing island.

With the kitchen becoming prominent its aesthetic design became more important, beyond that of separate kitchens that only need basic and functional cabinetry. Highly refined cabinets and appliance designs developed in conjunction with this trend.

Revisiting the Idea

The primary desire for open plan design was for everyone in the family to congregate and participate together without being in separate rooms. Anyone preparing a snack or meal in the kitchen could keep up with any conversation, television, movie, or game occurring in the space.

The problem with the open concept has to do with noise, smell and clutter. Preparing meals can be loud, smelly, and messy. The clanging of bottles, cans, pots, and pans; the noise of microwaves, blenders, and other small appliances; the smells of foods being prepared and cooked; and the messiness of food preparation can all lead to a kitchen that’s not pleasant to be around when relaxing, visiting, or eating a meal.

This noise and mess can overwhelm people and can interfere with the sounds coming from the television and creates an eyesore while eating. Even someone napping on the couch can be disturbed by someone just getting a soda out of the refrigerator.

Another issue with open planning has to do with energy use. Great rooms often have tall and vaulted ceilings. This added volume takes more effort and energy to heat and cool, and since heat rises keeping the space warm in winter takes a lot of effort.

This has led to rethinking the benefit of open planning. We might be seeing a return to the flowing spaces concept, but where the kitchen is more separated if not fully isolated.

Note: All images are by Cayl Hollis unless noted otherwise.