Early-1900s Taylorism: The First Open-Plan Office
Open-plan offices have become more prevalent in the past decade — but they aren’t a new concept. In fact, they’ve been around for more than 100 years. The “Taylorist” design was developed by American engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor. Taylor aimed to enhance efficiency by promoting collaboration in administrative work environments.
Although Taylor’s concept was for jobs that didn’t rely on manual labor or manufacturing, he was inspired by industrial environments. For example, Taylorist design placed senior managers’ offices on a second level overlooking workers below, similar to how foremen would oversee laborers in factories. This reinforced a hierarchy often still seen today. For example, in big office buildings, senior staff are often found on the upper floors.
One of the earliest examples of Taylor’s open-plan office design was seen in the Larkin Administration Building. This was a mail-order soap company, and the building was designed by famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Completed in 1906, it could house 1,800 workers. The soap company’s mail-order processing services had an assembly line nature, which made open collaboration necessary.
Wright’s open space fostered this system. This modern office also featured the first known “system” furniture, designed to prioritize workplace cleanliness and productivity by giving workers a work and storage space in one. The desks designed by Wright included built-in dividers and cabinets, for example.