Schnelle Antwort
An open plan office works when shared workstations are only one part of the layout. Start with peak occupancy, circulation, building constraints, and actual work patterns. Then separate quiet and active teams, control speech at its source, and add suitable enclosed spaces for calls, focused work, and meetings. Do not begin with visual style or the maximum possible desk count. A workable plan protects movement, gives each task an appropriate setting, and leaves room for operational change.
Last Updated: August 14, 2026 | Author: Richard | Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
Was ist ein Großraumbüro?
An open plan office is a workplace with shared floor area, relatively few private offices, and groups of workstations arranged without full-height walls between every employee. The terms Büro mit offenem Grundriss, Großraumbüround open space office usually describe the same broad model.
The layout does not have to be one undivided room. A practical open office combines shared desks with quiet neighborhoods, enclosed call spaces, small meeting settings, circulation routes, and support areas. The defining feature is a mix led by open work areas, not the complete removal of boundaries.
Open Plan Office Pros and Cons
The value of an open layout depends on whether its benefits match the work being done and whether the design controls the predictable drawbacks.
| Potential benefit | When it is useful | Failure condition |
|---|---|---|
| Fast access to colleagues | Teams need frequent, brief coordination | Conversations become continuous background speech |
| Flexible workstation planning | Headcount and team arrangements change | Furniture moves but power, ventilation, and circulation do not adapt |
| Efficient use of shared floor area | Occupancy is measured at realistic peak times | Desks are packed in before movement and support space are reserved |
| Shared visibility | Managers and teams benefit from awareness | Visual movement interrupts work that requires sustained attention |
| Fewer permanent rooms | The business needs adaptable space types | Private calls, focused work, and small meetings have nowhere to go |
An open plan office is a strong candidate when most employees benefit from regular coordination, confidential tasks are limited or can move to enclosed settings, and peak attendance leaves enough space for circulation and support functions. It is a weak candidate when most work requires sustained concentration, frequent confidential conversations, or permanent individual control over the environment.
Openness should not be treated as proof of collaboration. A field study by Bernstein and Turban observed two Fortune 500 office transitions and found that face-to-face interaction decreased in both cases while electronic interaction increased. The finding applies to those two observed transitions, but it is a useful warning: removing physical barriers does not automatically produce more in-person collaboration (study).
Why Open Plan Offices Fail
In B&H Ergonomics’ planning experience, the most persistent problems are caused by sequence. Teams approve a look or a workstation count before they validate movement, building constraints, and the work that needs acoustic or visual separation.
Style Is Chosen Before Capacity and Workflow
A concept may look spacious in a rendering while failing at peak attendance. Large shared tables, decorative partitions, and glass meeting areas consume usable floor area differently from the blocks shown in an early plan.
Confirm peak occupancy, workstation footprints, chair movement, storage, support equipment, and circulation before selecting a visual direction. Style should refine a workable plan, not determine whether the plan works.
Circulation Is Compressed to Add More Desks
A desk footprint is not the same as the space a person uses. Chairs pull back, people stop to talk, cabinet doors open, and two-way traffic needs room to pass. When these movement zones are omitted, employees collide behind workstations and routes become obstructed.
Do not apply one universal corridor dimension to every project. Required clearances depend on the route, occupancy, jurisdiction, and applicable rules. For U.S. projects, accessibility routes should be reviewed against the ADA-Standards für barrierefreies Design 2010, while the project architect or code consultant verifies local egress and fire requirements.
Active and Quiet Teams Are Mixed Together
Sales, customer support, recruiting, and project teams can generate frequent calls and short discussions. Finance, engineering, writing, and analytical roles may need longer periods without speech interruption. Alternating these teams desk by desk makes both groups work around the layout.
Group teams by dominant work pattern, then place shared enclosed settings between incompatible zones. The objective is not to label one team as noisy; it is to stop one work mode from becoming another team’s background condition.
Acoustic Control Is Added Too Late
An all-open scheme with extensive hard glass and few absorptive surfaces gives speech little containment. Once the layout is occupied, adding panels can reduce some reflected sound, but it cannot recover circulation space or create separation that was never reserved.
Treat acoustics as a layered plan: reduce unnecessary sound at the source, absorb reflected sound, create distance between incompatible activities, and enclose tasks that need speech privacy. For a more detailed treatment sequence, see how to den Lärm im Großraumbüro reduzieren.
Building Constraints Are Treated as Empty Floor Area
Columns, structural bays, door swings, windows, vents, returns, sprinklers, power access, and ceiling conditions all affect where people and enclosures can go. Forcing a uniform workstation grid around these constraints creates leftover gaps in some areas and compressed conditions in others.
Map fixed constraints first. A column can help define a zone boundary, but it should not be hidden inside a circulation route or ignored until installation.
Open Plan Office Zone Planner
Zone the floor by behavior before assigning products. The table below is a planning starting point, not a substitute for a measured plan.
| Work pattern | Best base zone | Place near | Separate from | Primary control |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Routine individual work | Shared workstation neighborhood | Team storage and normal circulation | High-traffic social areas | Clear local movement and moderate visual screening |
| Sustained focus work | Quiet neighborhood or enclosed focus setting | The employee’s home team | Sales calls, pantry areas, printers, and informal meeting points | Distance, behavioral rules, and acoustic separation |
| Frequent solo calls | Call zone with one-person enclosures | Teams with high call volume | Quiet neighborhoods | Speech containment and convenient access |
| Planned collaboration | Project or collaboration zone | Shared tools, display surfaces, and relevant teams | Concentration-heavy work | Defined boundaries and reservable space |
| Small group meetings | Enclosed huddle room or meeting pod | Main circulation without blocking it | Individual workstations | Speech separation, suitable seating, and ventilation |
| Social and support activity | Pantry, print, touchdown, or informal zone | Entrances or shared amenities | Focus and confidential work | Traffic management and absorption |
| Movement through the floor | Continuous circulation network | Doors, exits, amenities, and all occupied zones | Furniture, waiting areas, and door conflicts | Unobstructed routes validated before furniture placement |
Use the plan in this order:
- Mark immovable building conditions and regulated routes.
- Reserve circulation and door operation zones.
- Plot peak occupancy and the full in-use footprint of furniture.
- Group teams by call frequency, collaboration pattern, confidentiality, and focus demand.
- Place shared support and enclosed settings where the intended users can reach them without crossing quiet zones.
- Validate power, data, ventilation, lighting, sprinkler coordination, accessibility, and installation access with the responsible project specialists.
Phone Booth vs. Focus Pod vs. Meeting Pod
Choose an enclosed setting by three questions: how many people will use it, what the primary task requires, and how long a normal session lasts. Product labels alone do not answer these questions.
| Space type | Users | Primary task | Privacy and space need | Expected use duration | Poor fit when |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Telefonzelle | 1 | Phone or video call | High speech separation in a compact footprint | Shorter sessions | The user needs a large desk, extended screen work, or all-day occupancy |
| Focus pod | 1 | Concentrated individual work or a longer video session | Visual privacy, work surface, ergonomic posture, and controlled sound | Longer individual sessions | The task needs frequent team access or the interior setup does not support the intended work period |
| Besprechungsraum | 2 or more | Discussion, interview, review, or hybrid meeting | Group seating, shared sightlines, speech separation, and adequate airflow | Scheduled group sessions | Occupancy, seating, ventilation, or technology does not match the meeting pattern |
| Enclosed room | 1 or more | Repeated long-duration, sensitive, or specialist work | Greater control over layout and building services | Extended or recurring occupancy | The business needs a movable setting and cannot justify permanent construction |
Select the smallest space that supports the real occupancy and task without compromising comfort. A one-person caller does not need a group enclosure, while a focus user should not spend long work sessions in a booth designed only for brief calls. Meeting capacity should reflect normal attendance, not the largest meeting that happens once a quarter.
Once the missing work settings are clear, compare Bürocontainer by occupancy, task, interior setup, ventilation, and available placement area. Product selection should follow the zone plan.
How to Place Privacy Spaces Without Breaking Circulation
An enclosure solves one problem only if it does not create another. Check placement from the user’s approach, the surrounding workstations, and the building systems above and below the plan.
Preserve the Full Movement Envelope
Draw the enclosure body, door swing, entry approach, nearby chair pullback, and passing traffic. A unit that fits as a rectangle can still pinch a route when its door is open or someone waits outside.
Keep High-Frequency Spaces Close to Their Users
Call spaces should be convenient for teams that use them repeatedly. If the route is too long, employees will keep taking calls at their desks. Convenience is part of acoustic control.
Use Enclosures as Boundaries, Not Barriers
An enclosure can separate an active zone from a quieter neighborhood, but its entry should not face directly into concentrated work or discharge users into a narrow aisle. Orient doors and glazed surfaces around actual traffic and privacy conditions.
Coordinate Building Services Before Approval
Confirm ceiling height, lighting, power, data, ventilation, air returns, sprinklers, floor level, and delivery access. A product footprint alone is not an installation plan, and local review may affect the final location.
Test the Layout at Peak Use
Simulate occupied chairs, simultaneous calls, meeting changeovers, deliveries, cleaning, and access to shared equipment. A plan that works only when every chair is tucked in is not ready for sign-off.
What Office Pods Can and Cannot Fix
Office pods are useful when the floor lacks enclosed settings, but they do not repair every open office problem.
| Problem | What to fix first | Can a pod help? | Boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calls spill across the floor | Move call activity away from quiet work and reduce speech at the source | Yes, by giving calls an enclosed destination | It will not correct reflective sound across the rest of the room |
| Employees cannot find focus space | Define demand, access rules, and location | Yes, with a suitable one-person focus setting | It will not make an overcrowded desk neighborhood quiet |
| Small meetings occupy desk aisles | Provide a reservable group setting near the relevant teams | Yes, when capacity and technology match normal meetings | It will not replace larger conference or specialist rooms |
| Main routes are too narrow | Reduce, resize, or reorient furniture and restore circulation | Nein | Adding another enclosure increases the conflict |
| The office is hot or poorly ventilated | Review the base-building system and occupied heat loads | Only as part of a coordinated plan | A pod does not repair the room’s HVAC design |
| Too many people share the floor | Revisit peak occupancy, attendance patterns, and workstation count | Nein | Privacy products cannot compensate for excessive density |
| Confidential work dominates the day | Reassess the overall open-office model | Manchmal | Permanent rooms or a different workplace mix may be more appropriate |
The practical sequence is to correct planning failures first, then use enclosed settings to fill specific gaps. Buying several units without a demand map can produce the same mismatch as adding more meeting rooms without knowing who needs them.
Open Plan Office Layout Checklist
Before Drawing the Layout
- Record peak on-site headcount by team and day, not just total payroll headcount.
- Count simultaneous solo calls, focused work sessions, and small meetings during busy periods.
- Identify roles with confidentiality, sustained concentration, or specialist equipment requirements.
- Obtain an accurate plan showing columns, doors, windows, building services, and level changes.
- Confirm which professionals are responsible for accessibility, egress, fire, electrical, ventilation, and installation review.
Before Fixing the Workstation Count
- Reserve primary and secondary circulation before filling desk rows.
- Draw chairs, storage, door swings, and waiting space in their in-use positions.
- Separate high-call and high-collaboration teams from concentration-heavy teams.
- Place printers, pantry points, and informal meeting areas outside quiet neighborhoods.
- Test the plan at peak occupancy and during common movement events.
Before Selecting Enclosed Spaces
- Match each space to user count, primary task, privacy requirement, and expected duration.
- Confirm interior work surface, seating, power, data, lighting, and video-call needs.
- Check ventilation and intended occupancy with the supplier and project team.
- Confirm door orientation, approach space, delivery route, and installation access.
- Avoid using a pod to conceal an unresolved density, circulation, or base-building problem.
Before Final Approval
- Walk through the layout with representatives from both active and quiet teams.
- Verify that every recurring task has a suitable destination.
- Review the measured plan with the responsible design, facility, and code professionals.
- Check that the layout can accommodate realistic team or attendance changes.
- Record the assumptions behind headcount, room demand, and product quantities so they can be reviewed after occupancy.
An open plan office is ready for approval when movement works at peak use, incompatible activities are separated, and every recurring task has an appropriate setting. If those conditions are unresolved, changing finishes or adding more desks will not complete the plan.
FAQ
How Much Space Should There Be Between Workstations in an Open Plan Office?
There is no single workstation spacing number that applies to every open plan office. The plan must account for the desk, the occupied chair position, chair pullback, storage access, passing traffic, and nearby door operation. The responsible project team must also verify the accessibility, egress, and fire requirements that apply to the location and route type.
How Many Phone Booths or Office Pods Does an Open Office Need?
Base the quantity on peak simultaneous demand rather than total employee count. Record how many private calls, focused sessions, and small meetings occur at the same time, then compare that demand with current room availability and observed queues. The mix should be reviewed after occupancy because attendance patterns and booking behavior can change. A more detailed method is available in this guide to Gewerbliche Büroraumplanung mit Office Pods.
Can Acoustic Panels Fix a Noisy Open Office?
Acoustic panels can reduce reflected sound, but they do not create speech privacy or correct poor zoning, excessive density, or calls taken beside focus workstations. Use absorption as one layer alongside source control, distance, behavioral rules, and enclosed settings for tasks that need separation.
Are Open Plan Offices Suitable for Confidential Work?
They can support occasional confidential work when employees have convenient access to enclosed, appropriately managed spaces. If confidential calls, sensitive records, or private discussions dominate the working day, a mixed layout with more permanent enclosed rooms is usually a better fit than a predominantly open floor.
